Ink Heart
by Foy the Snooze Button
Summary: People always thought that to be strong a person had to have bulging muscles, or super speed, or almighty battle field leveling jutsu; some of the more naive people taught that to be strong one had to have someone or somewhere to love, someone they had to strive to protect. And with this mentality the world moved... That is... BEFORE Naruto came into play. Scientist! Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

**New story alert!**

 **A good friend of mine gave me this story idea and I couldn't help but type it down. Thank you 'Kilare T'Suna'. The story might not be exactly what you expected it to be but it's in there…somewhere…**

 **Moving on!**

 **Like pretty much all of my stories Naruto's going to be dark, though in this one he's going to sadistic. If I was being honest I inspired Naruto from Orochimaru; he's going to be a scientist, like freaking smart and deceptive. Speaking of Orochimaru, there's going to be a fem Orochimaru here; she's pretty much the same as canon Orochimaru just in female form. I want to keep the surprise on how Orochimara (fem Orochimaru, I know, it's not that inventive) is connected to Naruto. Konoha is not going to be beating Naruto up or messing up his mind, he goes down the dark path on his own free will, but Konoha will pretty much whisper bad words behind his back and ignore his existence (on good days). This goes for the Sandaime too. You all know what I think of Jiriaya so I'm not even going to elaborate. There will be no spider clan here…for now…**

 **Don't expect Naruto to be going into a long winded monologue on peace, friendship and happiness. Yeah…no, this Naruto pretty much doesn't care who he has to kill before he reaches his goal(s) (except family). He will be mind bogglingly smart, so be prepared. I was writing this beginning authors note in a bit of a rush so I might have forgotten to warn you about some things (oops); let me know your opinions, criticism, etc. in the review.**

 **Let me not make you bored with my mindless jabbering.**

 **Happy reading folks!**

 **Here's 'Ink Heart'**

 **I DO NOT OWN Naruto**

 _Prologue_

 _Yomisaki market, in front of Mount Yomisaki,_

 _Spring country._

A teen sat on a stool in front of the throngs of listening merchants and their children, captivating them with his tales and adventures. This teenager was a pale blonde haired boy with pitch black goggles fixed on his forehead firmly, his eyes were equally black but with vulpine red pupils that didn't intimidate his eager audience, seeing as he had been part of their society for six months. This blonde story teller wore long sleeved black shirt with a slashed Konoha hitaite on his right arm and black ANBU grade pants, with a camo red scarf wrapped around his neck comfortably. He also had on thick red ninja grade boots that reached only to his ankles, and a pair of red gloves on his hands that waved around, showing all what he had done in one of his many adventures. The person was equally almost as pale as the softly dropping snow that almost eternally fell around Yomisaki Mountain, even though the country it was situated in was not known as Snow country anymore. This person placed a hand on his thigh and leaned in, raising his other hand in a claw,

"-then the Marsh fog monster raised its venomous claw and brought it down on me," the raptly listening audience gasped at what he had said, some of the female adult populace even leaned back abruptly and held their hearts, the storyteller nodded to confirm what he had said was true, "his hands were the size of an adult snow tiger and their venom is known to take down three brown bears with no problem,"

"What did you do, Naruto-san?" a black haired child asked from the front row,

Here the person beamed at the child, then to the audience, displaying his super serrated teeth for all to behold but again they didn't recoil from him, rather they perked up even more, if that was even possible, "well I whipped out-" before he could continue he paused and leaned to his right, a black haired female with a katana sheathed on her back bent down to whisper something into his ear. She wore blaringly white pants and short sleeved shirt but with a light blood red long sleeved coat with thick fur protecting her neck from the soft chill that blew through the merchant village.

The rogue Konoha ninja quirked his eyebrows at what his friend whispered to him, "are you certain?"

"Very, they're just fifty paces behind the crowd,"

The blonde looked over the perplexed audience and saw what, or who, his friend was warning him of; two people wearing black with red clouds cloaks. One had blue skin and shark-like serrated teeth that glinted at him; there was a quivering _thing_ on his back. The other person was dusting his nails on his cloak and raised them to his orange masked face.

Naruto smiled widely at his listeners and spoke up, "I am very sorry for this but it's that time of the week again," the time he usually spoke of was when missing ninjas arrived in their village and attempted to collect his hefty bounty, rather though this time was very different. It was the Akatsuki that had finally found him.

The children moaned sadly and pouted, the adults though shook their heads in exasperation, "do you really have to go?" an adorable four year old girl with her blue hair set in cute two pig tails said, the girl had her arms crossed stubbornly and kept the pose even when a middle aged man with grey-blue hair picked her up, the other children too were being picked up by their parents.

"They won't go away if I don't 'talk' to them," he air quoted, the girl sniffed and nodded but it was really only the adults that understood what he meant,

The merchants and their children were now packing into the small, humble houses Naruto himself had helped build when he had arrived, though another middle aged woman with grey-blue hair stuck behind when her daughter and her husband were inside their house. The woman frowned worriedly, "don't make too much noise,"

Naruto waved his hands flippantly, "it's nothing the kids haven't seen or heard me do, lady,"

The woman agreed on that point and was gently ushered back in by Naruto's katana wielding friend, "don't worry ma'am, we'll try and be quiet,"

"Thank you, Aoki-chan," the woman smiled at her and shut the door. The woman named Aoki turned back to the blonde teen and shrugged, making sure to unstrap her katana with the sheath and hold it in her left hand.

The woman walked to Naruto's side, standing behind him protectively and held her katana in a ready stance. Naruto though stood straight with his arms crossed; his camo red scarf blew in the wind ominously. The sixteen year old boy cocked his head to the side when Tobi took a step forward, not close enough to lunge at the blonde but enough to show that the masked man was the leader of the duo.

"You are a very hard person to find, Naruto,"

"I've been told that a lot," Naruto replied with a small shrug, "so you're here for the Kyuubi?"

Tobi didn't even seem the least bit surprised, "well yes, that's exactly why we're here. So would you be so kind as to not resist, we don't want to destroy this nice place,"

"Oh you don't have to worry about that, this place is _pretty_ bomb proof," the boy said with a small smirk; he had tested the buildings himself, "now to get all formalities aside; I will not leave with you, you two will not leave alive and I will use your dead carcasses to feed my little friends," he smiled a little wider at them, a perfect image of child-like innocence showing,

Kisame snorted, but still unlatched his sword from his back, "you don't mean that,"

"You obviously haven't been reading the bingo book lately, I recommend the Iwagakure bingo book," then Naruto snapped his fingers as if he was just realizing something, "oh yeah, and I'll be taking your sharingan and Samehada too. I almost forgot to say that,"

"It happens to everyone," Aoki said to him, very much used to her bosses' habit of intimidating his opponent before he really attacked,

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Tobi said,

Naruto hunched over a little and two I've foot long senbon slid out of the hidden senbon launchers strapped to his forearms under his sleeves, the lethal needles grazed the ground and on contact a purple liquid dripped from them and fizzled on the ground. Without hesitation he and his partner darted to the two S rank ninja…

Little did Tobi and Kisame know, or despite the fact they had severely underestimated the Uzumaki rogue ninja and his rogue samurai partner, they were in for a world of surprise that the rumours that they had heard flitting all over the continent about the boy were indeed true; Naruto Uzumaki was a _very_ capable shinobi. He had been trained by the Snake sage herself, which was enough proof he wasn't to be trifled with.

Team seven with Yamato, Kakashi and Jiriaya just managed to run in in time to watch the epic fight between Naruto and Aoki against the few last Akatsuki members.

 _ **Flashback**_

CHAPTER 1

They were staring again.

Naruto, donning a hoodie that was two times bigger than him and a pair of black shorts shuffled through the streets of Konoha, his hood hiding his eyes and some of his hair, leaving his frown to be seen by all who were near and some flecks of blonde hair sticking out of the sides. There was a small bulge in his chest area where he hugged a jar to his chest, a small skittering creature scampering inside impatiently.

The five year old boy never liked walking in public view, but the great distrust he had apparently garnered for something that was out of his knowledge had the Hokage place his apartment at the very edge of the residential district, where he would have no other option but to walk a few paces in full view to anywhere he was going. The frown on his mouth deepened, a facial feature one of his age shouldn't have but one he wore mostly when others saw him.

The boy wanted to hiss venom at the old crones that were whispering as he passed, not even having the decency to do so behind their hands or even out of sight,

" _That boy…he's trouble,"_

" _Tell me about it,"_

" _Why does Hokage-sama still have him around?"_

" _They say he even keeps dead bodies in his apartment,"_

" _The sadistic little devil, Kami have mercy!"_

The blonde child hugged the jar closer to him and walked faster away from the insistent gossiping and whispers that followed after him like a stubborn fly. He had been living on his own for as long as he could remember and as far as he knew he hadn't given any of the citizens of Konoha any trouble whatsoever; he had kept to his own and had provided for himself without any help. Naruto walked through a training ground, making sure to pass the very edge so that he wouldn't disturb the genin training there, and entered into the tree line. The boy softly padded through the forest, the dry leaves crunching under his worn but well maintained black sandals before he stopped under a tree that had a trunk that was twice as thick as an average man but was at the same time only three heads taller than Naruto; the boy liked to humour himself by calling it a tree only because it had some sparse leaves on the trunk. It looked like a spike that had shot straight out of the ground that just happened to grow roots and also had some leaves sprouting out from the upper side of the trunk, where branches were supposed to be.

Naruto grunted quietly and knelt down beside this tree, he brought out the jar he had been hugging to his chest without anyone knowing. He flipped his hoodie off, revealing the thick black goggles with pitch black lenses that hid his eyes perfectly, lifted the jar to his eyes and peered into it with child-like curiosity. The lenses of the goggles seemed to spin and the edges glowed a faint blue, allowing Naruto to zoom in on the creature inside the jar. (Like with a camera)

The creature was a spider that spanned the same size as a full grown man's hand; the tips of its eight legs and the tips of its fangs were blood red, its bulbous abdomen was black and shivered in anticipation as Naruto looked at it, just as curious, and its trunk was also black. Naruto lightly tapped the jar with his pointer finger before he dropped the jar on the ground, "well hello there, Spider-san, what species are you?" he whispered this to himself as he reached into his baggy hoodie and withdrew a thick tome from the abyss of darkness there. There was a green seal at the sides that simply said 'species of spiders', he rolled open the tome and was looking up at the spider then down at the advanced scroll. He had caught the spider in his bed when he was doing spring cleaning and he felt so oddly intrigued by it he didn't kill it; catching dangerous animals was Naruto's specialty so it didn't take him more than an hour of chasing it before he bagged it, his inhuman regeneration also helped.

It was when he was three, the only time he ever got a present, when he found the thick scroll on his footsteps; no one ever bothered to check if anything he received was a trap or was even remotely harmful and he didn't care, he treasured everything he found that was worth money. He had just barely managed to learn how to read by sneaking into the orphanage and attending the classes there among the throngs of fellow three year old, when he had a reasonable grasp on how to read he dived into the scroll. His first thoughts was wondering why he would find a scroll on spiders in front of his house, the next was if there were more scrolls like that one.

Before Naruto had received his black goggles he had problems with his sight, or his eyes. Any sharp change in lighting would render him blind for a full minute before they adjusted again, this blindness brought sharp pin-like pain to his pupils and a headache that started from the back of his head and spread to his whole brain. This was mostly because the day the Kyuubi had been sealed into him Minato had made a small mistake by allowing the flow of demon chakra to reach Naruto's eyes, as the Shinigami prepared to take his soul he had barely managed to correct his mistake by surrounding Naruto's eyes with level ten chakra limiters and jinchuriki restraint seals, which normally would have killed any normal person. The Yondaime had proven his strength in seals that day after he had finished, giving Naruto his sight back and also opening a window for medicated glasses to be given to his son, which sadly weren't given to him until his fourth birthday by the unknown person, probably the same person that gave him the scroll on spiders. Before then Naruto had worn some shades he had picked from a dumpster that weren't too effective against abrupt change in lighting. The black goggles, according to the letter left next to the box that contained the goggles, was fortified by complex fuinjutsu; it allowed him to 'zoom in' (among other things) with a mental command and carefully regulated the light that entered his eyes, making sure that quick changes wouldn't be noticed that much but at the same time his vision was still clear.

Naruto was immensely grateful to his mysterious helper for his two gifts; he or she helped him discover his ambition. Reading the scroll on spiders and also the letter the person had sent with the goggles had made him realize something; that he didn't know up to half of what the person had said.

His grammatical handicap had frustrated him to no end. This fact opened his eyes to things he wasn't aware of; being lower than anyone based on what he knew enraged him greatly and he never liked the feeling of being mentally inadequate to not knowing the answer to something. He wanted to know everything humanly possible. He had already started his quest for knowledge by visiting the library to expand his vocabulary, staying up well into the night reading because the library was open '24/7' and he exercised that privilege fully. The librarian didn't stop him, quite frankly the old chunin didn't care what he did, all that mattered to him was that his books were placed back in prime condition; Naruto wasn't old enough to get a library card or borrow books. Even though Naruto was still very young he knew that knowing everything was not possible, so he limited his search of knowledge on living things, organisms and chakra, this also included how the human mind worked. First he had to start reading basic science textbooks with a dictionary at the ready to search for a word he didn't know the meaning of and a scrap book where he wrote things down in; though despite little research the first living thing he had ever caught, the spider, had interested him the most. There were over forty seven documented spider species in Konohagakure alone, this didn't mean that there weren't any more species of spiders to be discovered.

Naruto ran his finger over the scroll and instinctively searched for any species of spiders that were red, then ones with red tipped legs before he finally found the mysterious spider he caught in his apartment. He sat back a little in shock and tilted his head to the side, trying to make sense of what he had read; he chose to read it again, "The Sand duster, originally from Sunagakure no Sato. You, my friend, are a long way from home; how did you get here? The scroll says you can't stay three hours without the intense heat of the desert…" he trailed off when his mind came to a conclusion, or rather two, "you were either dropped off by my mysterious 'helper' or…you were planted…" the boys mouth formed a straight line, a blank expression as he stared at the spider and clenched his teeth. The scroll had said that the spiders venom was merely its saliva stored up for a week, his regeneration fixed any problems the spider had given him which meant that it was his helper that had planted the spider because the mysterious person somehow knew of his interest in spiders and his vision problems. Naruto ran his fingers through his thin, blonde hair, "I'm not taking any chances,"

His limited memory recalled that there was an abandoned warehouse at the far edge of Konoha's forest, barely even touching the walls; people assumed the place was haunted so most, even the shinobi, stayed clear. Naruto was a rational thinker, as young as he was, so he didn't believe in phantoms or anything that had been the result of irrational thoughts. Naruto's eyes trailed to the spider that was still in the jar and he furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed it was running around in circles inside its glass prison before realization hit him; it seemed he would have to visit the warehouse sooner than he expected. He stashed his scroll back into his hoodie and ran head long into the forest, the warehouse he had been thinking about wasn't too far from his normal hiding place, and his theory was proven correct when he stumbled into an open area where his destination lay. The warehouse was a dark, looming structure that towered high into the sky, from Naruto's point of view, with numerous windows that were broken. The morning sun didn't penetrate the section of forest he was in well so the structure looked like an evil monster that was formed from the very pits of Yomi. Naruto disregarded the old warehouse's large front door and rushed to the side door; he used his shoulders to nudge open the normal sized door, knowing that the front door was designed to be opened mechanically, and sneezed from all of the dust in the air. His eyes watered and he kept the door opened so he could get a grasp of the room he was in; it looked like a sort of office but it had been stripped down of all its contents.

The boy gently dropped the jar and shrugged off his hoodie, showing that he was wearing a black under vest under this, and tightly wrapped it around the spider. The scroll had said that the duster behaved erratically when it was low on heat so if he released the spider it would run off somewhere and probably die from exertion. The boy looked around and found that the windows were boarded up; they were much too high for him to pull off and he knew that since the warehouse had been abandoned for so long, reportedly since the day the Sandaime became Hokage, then there would be nothing to use for a fire there. The boy used the next best thing in his arsenal, he scampered to the spider that had been slowing down and was now behaving sluggishly, and put his hands on the sides of the jar. He closed his eyes and tried to will some of his unnatural regenerative ability out, hopefully in the form of chakra.

Kurama stared out of the boys eyes sadly and shook his head; he would have helped but his chakra would alert the other shinobi on where Naruto was and the small child would lose the one place he would ever feel private in. The great beast closed his eyes and sighed when Naruto started crying a little, sobbing out encouragements for his chakra to come out but still wouldn't,

"Please…" Naruto said; the trails of tears flowing freely from his eyes and he wheezed a little, "please, please, please…" this was probably the first living thing Naruto had spoken to, this fact was what bolstered Naruto on to coax the chakra out. The spider was now spread eagle on the ground, his glassy eyes looking at Naruto's futile attempt to summon beast chakra, it closed its eyes and never opened them again, "no, no, no…this can't be happening…" for the next half hour Naruto tried to summon chakra to the dead spider but it was all in vain. The boy lowered his head and rubbed the tears in his eyes out; he then took the jar and made sure the spider was buried respectfully, or as respectfully as a mourning five year old orphan could do without any shovel or even a kunai.

Naruto looked down on the fresh 'grave' he dug with his hands and he clenched them, dirtied and all; his inadequacy and limited mental abilities couldn't perform the simple task of summoning chakra out of his body. A small spurt of rage erupted out of Naruto and he threw the now empty jar into the dark forest, he heard a resulting smashing sound, telling him that his jar had been broken. Despite basically _living_ in the library for a year and a half and spending more than half of his day reading he was still not capable of anything to be proud of. The five year old boy rubbed his face and shrugged on his hoodie, and re-entered the abandoned warehouse. As he shouldered through the door leading out to the apparent office of the building he was met with a sight of every surface in the massive storage space blanketed with a thin layer of dust. He held his right sleeve to his nose and mouth and the edges of his goggles shone blue, then yellow. This feature in the goggles allowed him to get a general look on his surroundings with only a little dust in the air; the items in the apparent warehouse proved what he had read in the library and the rumours going around in the red light district among the prostitutes.

The warehouse he stood in was actually a massive laboratory; the former user had even created a wall to his right where he assumed living people were kept as test subjects. The history of the warehouse was that during the second shinobi war, a long while before Hiruzen Sarutobi became the third Hokage, a man that had no records in any country on the continent had arrived under the guise of a business man who sold cheap, but high quality, drugs, antidotes and medicine to Konoha shinobi and civilians alike at the very same place Naruto stood. The Nidaime had been too busy fending off Konoha aggressors to deeply investigate who the man was or why he had come to Konoha with cheap, but quality, aid, but the wise Hokage had created a faction in the ANBU to watch the man for any suspicious behaviour. The drugs the man was supplying weren't creating any adverse effects on anyone as far as he knew but there was no such thing as free, or in this case cheap, help. Though the man wasn't aware that the very ANBU faction he had appointed to investigate the man had been paid off by this very man to look the other way on his proceedings; the man had been kidnapping Konoha citizens and performing sickening tests on them in his own perverse search for the ultimate drug that would provide for him immortality, super strength and super intelligence. His evil dealings had been successful for seven years until the Sandaime came was handed the mantle of Hokage. He made the mistake of kidnapping a female Inuzuka clan member. The man had been itching to get his hands on an Inuzuka's brain, to understand the true depths their connection was with their ninken, and he was very close too but a joint invasion of his laboratory (under the guise of a medicine wholesale warehouse) by the Inuzuka, Nara, Aburame, Hatake, Hyuuga, Uchiha clans and clan-less shinobi had stopped him from digging his fingers further into the poor woman's head. If she had been pulled out of the forced coma she would have been a vegetable for the rest of her life, so they had to perform a mercy killing on her.

The man, despite not having any remote shinobi training, had put up a valiant fight by ingesting a drug that allowed him to expel numerous chakra strings from his pores without any complications and repel the invaders, saving his precious lab from the destruction that was to come. He rammed a needle into his chest to increase the flow of adrenaline and another needle went to his neck to give him super strength. Even with all of his perks if he had even genin level shinobi coordination he would have lasted longer than a day but he didn't; the Konoha invaders proved strong enough to take him on. His office had been ransacked of every document he had on his vile experiments and burned; his lab though had been sealed off from the world. It was due to years of deterioration from the building did parts of the initial seal fall off; this was why Naruto had been allowed entry in the first place.

Naruto shuffled around and looked closely at the powerful microscopes that had been covered with dust, and then the dirty test tubes and petri dishes that littered the ground haphazardly, probably after their contents had been poured out into sand filled buckets. Naruto saw a primitive looking screen that had been destroyed and correctly assumed that it was where the nameless man had made his video recordings; from the age of the screen the pictures it would produce would be grainy and lack any colour besides black and white, why bother using it in the first place? The boy ignored the screen and gently ran his fingers over an arm length open jar that lay on its side, he saw a faint break in the dust on the ground with his now faint yellow tinted goggles, like the person (or _thing_ ) in the jar had tried to escape but had died from over exposure to the elements; it might have happened during the day long fight between the man and the Konoha shinobi. His theory was proven right when he saw a small pile of bones where the faint tracks led; he wouldn't have even caught the track if it weren't for his goggles. He knelt down beside the bones and screwed his lips to the side at how they were; they didn't even look remotely human, the bones looked like a cross between a rat and fish, but as big as a three year old. Naruto picked up a bone and noticed something on the floor board directly under the pile of bones, a small chink in the wood that was raised up fractionally like the creature had tried to pry it open with its teeth.

He slowly removed the hooked teeth from the wooden floor board and poked his finger through the hole; he felt a slightly cool draft there but not much of a temperature change from the entire building. Naruto ran through all his goggles could do; blue for zooming in, yellow for a general view on what something was supposed to look like (it usually delayed depending on how complex the thing was), green for chakra levels, red for chakra network and orange for night vision, his secret helper had said that if he grew old it could do much more for him and him alone but again his age and current mental abilities was a frustrating handicap. Naruto assumed that if he mastered his goggles enough he would be able to unlock or even _add_ X-ray vision to what it could do but at the moment he would have to see through surfaces the manual way. Naruto grabbed the bone he guessed was the femur and hacked down on the floor board, he grunted with each downward smash and when he noticed that he was breaking through the old wooden floor he began bashing the floor harder, more insistent until it broke clean through. He exhaled the breathe he was holding and pulled the bone out of the floor, dropping it near him and he pulled his sleeves to his palms, be used them as sort of make shift hand protectors. He used his make shift hand protectors to grab the broken wooden floor and heaved, he heard a small crack and he puffed out another breathe before he heaved back one final time.

He threw away the wood and painstakingly pulled out three more boards so he could see clearer; when he was done he found a dust coated white lab briefcase. He reached in and hefted it out, shocked by how heavy it was, and lugged it backwards, away from the hole in the ground in case it caved in. When he was in a safe distance he blew the dust off the case and saw the name 'Ashitori Roshimaru' neatly placed on the top. Naruto's goggles turned green, showing that he was checking for any sort of chakra seal, and sighed when there wasn't any. He flipped the latch on the briefcase and carefully opened it, his eyebrows shot into his hair line at the things inside.

There was a voice recorder tucked neatly to the side, thick notes with neat handwriting inside, something he assumed were memory cards for the voice recorder that were organised by topic and time in pockets at the left side of the case, there was an assortment of pens at the right side that were neatly tucked according to colour and finally there was a picture of a grinning man on the lid. The man had pitch black hair and was extremely pale; he had on clear, thick glasses under which he had black pupils. His mouth was stretched into a toothy grin, exposing his needle-like canines, and with his sharp chin, nose and posture would have made Naruto think he was a vampire. He was standing beside a door that was labelled 'X-19' and was giving the camera a happy thumb up; from the small door sized window on the door he saw a small shadow cross, he couldn't see it clearly but the person looked much younger than him. He was fully donned in generic doctors uniform with three pens neatly placed in his right breast pocket and a clipboard in his left hand. At the foot of the picture was again that curious name 'Ashitori Roshimaru' but this time under that name was the title 'Doc Roshi'. Naruto furrowed his eyebrows at the picture; it was now obvious that the name of this vile and evil man that had performed vile and evil experiments on humans was Ashitori Roshimaru, and that was when something clicked in Naruto's mind.

The rat-fish hybrid was what Ashitori had been observing before the invasion and it had dropped when the doctor had unleashed his chakra strings, as Ashitori ran out to face the shinobi fearlessly the creature, probably tormented from the brain numbing experiments, tried to expose where the evil doctor had kept his back up research material which, like a good doctor, he had in case he was ever to lose his life's work. The creature had died before it could muster up the strength to use its hook-like rat teeth to rip up the floor, maybe from being in the open air for too long, it was trying to show the shinobi where the last of Ashitori's work was so it could also be destroyed. Rather than that happening, its dead body had been avoided like the plague, probably because it had _already_ started to fester and give off a rancid stench; it was _**not**_ meant for open air. The evil doctor's life's work had survived and apparently was now in Naruto's hands. Quite frankly the fact he was able to piece that all together surprised even _him_.

A twisted smirk slowly crawled on Naruto's face as he skimmed through the notes, ignoring the parts that were well past his mental ability. He couldn't help himself; a laugh of childish glee escaped his lips. His laughter echoed around the empty laboratory and into the darkness of the woods around.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Time skip: Seven years later_

"Congratulations to all of our new genin and I wish you all the best in your fields of specialization. The team selection list will be posted in a week, so be back by then. Know that I am proud of all of you; I see great things in your futures. Dismissed," Iruka finished and the excited genin began chattering amongst themselves as they left the class. He smiled at them and sat down on his desk to organise some homework he had given another class, he looked up five minutes later when the noise had subsided and just barely caught Naruto before he slipped out of the class, his hitaite tied to his left arm and his black hoodie throwing a shadow over his face and part of his nose ominously; Iruka raised his hand to get the boys attention, "hey Naruto,"

Naruto stopped his quiet walk and tilted his head to the side, "sensei," he answered shortly,

"You did great in your weapons test, who taught you how to use the senbon?"

"I must have picked it up somewhere," Naruto shrugged and fully turned to Iruka,

"Your taijutsu spar with Mizuki was also spectacular, I mean, where did you get that style from?" the spar had been stopped just before Naruto could jam his fingers into Mizuki's neck,

"Made it myself, I couldn't find a style good for me so I made my own,"

"Have you named it yet?"

"Yes…I call it the four legged spider style, it's still a work in progress," in actuality it was called the 'Shadow legged spider fighting style' but it had stages, with each increase in effort he would add a 'leg' if he wanted, both figuratively and physically speaking, though he was limited to only four 'legs' he was confident he would be able to figure out how to get five or even _more_ 'legs' without being deformed,

"Speaking of work in progress, who taught you the shadow clone technique?"

"Do you really want to know?" Naruto said with mild amusement lacing his words,

The academy teacher perked up, "yes,"

"I won it in a poker game with some drug dealers body guards," Naruto snorted out a laugh when Iruka went pale, "they're just big softies, sensei, they took their loss like real men," Iruka didn't ask him how _old_ he was when he won the A rank jutsu and he didn't feel like telling,

"I'm just glad to hear you're not harmed,"

Naruto nodded and sent a lax two finger salute to his former teacher, "I have to go now, there are issue I must attend to," he walked out before Iruka could respond and the light smile that was on his face was wiped off in favour of an amused smirk.

There was a lot going for Naruto at the moment. He had managed to decipher the notes Ashitori had written and was now sure that his knowledge of the human body was only matched by a medical doctor in the hospital. It had taken him a few months of manual labour but he had gotten the laboratory and the office clean for inhabitation, the tools he used to clean he had stolen from the cleaning supplies storage room in the hospital; it was kind of sad how low on importance the hospital was, the security there was appalling. The money he had been using for upkeep, which was supposed to come from the Sandaime but still hadn't, was gotten from gambling in the red light district, posing as a millionaire that lusted for money as much as he liked winning.

Naruto walked away from the academy with his hands in his red ninja pants pockets, his head was down and his eyes furrowed in thought; running through various things in his mind that primarily concerned expanding his knowledge on living creatures. He hadn't yet started _**actively**_ testing on humans **in his laboratory** but he reserved a section in the warehouse where he stored wild animals for experiments there. Though he had been slipping small doses of drugs he had crafted in his laboratory into other student's food, jotting down their reactions. This was after he had extensively tested the drug on himself; there was no drug newly that he didn't test on himself except a few… _select_ drugs that would be very detrimental to his mental capacities. One of his minor goals was to harness the animal's power and successfully place it in a human, he deduced he could do this with fuinjutsu but with how busy he always was he couldn't find the time to rise past level six. He was so lost in thought he didn't react in time for a neck grab, the culprit viciously pulled him back into an academy training ground he was passing through. The budding scientist used the momentum of this move to roll backwards twice and when his eyes were forward again he levelled both of his arms at the person, glinting silver senbon launchers twinkled a little under his hoodie's sleeves; sunlight hit the tip of the senbon that was ready to be fired. Sasuke looked at him with a deep frown that deepened when Naruto snorted and stood upright, making sure to push his senbon back into their inbuilt containers with his pointer finger.

"Oh, it's just you," Naruto said with a downward twitch of his lips, but he covered this up perfectly and smirked at the Uchiha,

"I want a re-match, Uzumaki" Sasuke shortly said,

"Excuse me,"

"You heard me, I want a re-match," Sasuke snarled and got into a strong Uchiha taijutsu stance,

"No,"

"I didn't give you a choice," the Uchiha darted at Naruto and Naruto leaned away from a punch, he stepped away rigidly when a kick was sent at him and bent under a savage right hook, "fight me damn it!"

"I'm pretty sure I said no," the blonde boy slipped away from a grasp for his head, stepped away from the rising knee and quickly got close to Sasuke when he got back to the ground, he swept his feet from under the Uchiha and as the boy was going down he had a blow to his stomach follow after. Sasuke grunted as the punch hit him as his back hit the ground, "that's enough, Sasuke-san,"

"Fight me, dobe," Sasuke growled,

"If this is your Uchiha pride speaking I advise you to discard it, I'm not in the mood to be trifled with," Naruto stood up and dusted down his hoodie, when he noticed that Sasuke was gearing his muscles up to leap at him he levelled his right fist at his face, a senbon clicked into place on the launcher, "I am _**warning**_ you Sasuke-san, I am not above killing _anyone_ ,"

The Uchiha snarled and his fingers twitched anxiously, "you don't have the guts, dobe,"

"Do you want to test me? Go on, attack me, I dare you…" when Sasuke hesitated he stepped back, "that's what I thought," he spun around on his heels and marched out of the training ground, "meet me when your calmer Sasuke-san, you'd pose a bigger challenge then," Naruto said over his shoulder. As he exited the training ground he stopped and turned to the person he sensed had been following him from the academy, besides Sasuke. The person, Mizuki Touji, hurried up to him and grinned friendlily,

"Hey there kid,"

"Mizuki-sensei, how may I help you?" both began walking to Naruto's apartment,

"I saw how you took down Sasuke-"

"I was merely telling him to back off," Naruto stopped abruptly and so did his former teacher,

"Either way it was very impressive," Naruto just shrugged, "I was just looking for the best student I ever taught,"

Naruto, who had continued walking, stopped again and looked at Mizuki suspiciously, "mind I ask why?" he crossed his arms and looked at his sensei,

"There was some extra credit stuff only the best of the best can do, and _you_ Naruto are the best of the best,"

Naruto scratched chin and raised an eyebrow, "you're trying to stoke my ego, why…?"

Mizuki scratched his cheek bashfully and winked at the younger boy, "you got me, you're so smart,"

Naruto rolled his eyes and kept walking, he passed the invisible boundary into the red light district and immediately he did so he grabbed a ruffian by the scruff of his neck, the child was basically wearing grey rags and his dirty brown hair speckled dirt on Naruto's hand. The blonde boy mutely stared at the street rat before he slowly brought his hand forward and motioned for the boy to drop what he had taken, the boy smiled bashfully and dropped the a brown wallet that was stuffed with crisp money notes. Naruto shook his head and motioned for more, the boy looked at him pleadingly, making sure to enlarge his pupils in a perfect rendition of the kicked puppy look but Naruto raised an amused eyebrow and the boy huffed, crossing his arms for a few seconds before he emptied his pockets into Naruto's hand. The blonde boy dropped the street rat and sharply nodded for the boy to scram, he gave the stolen items to the dumb founded shinobi next to him,

"How did he get my wallet…?" Mizuki quietly asked,

"You should be asking how he got your wrist watch, your kunai pouch and the Icha Icha paradise that was in you back pocket," Naruto idly answered, "you really should be more aware, sensei,"

"Can I assume you know how to pickpocket too?"

"I know a lot of things," the boy responded with a small shrug, "Now, what crime were you trying to get me to commit?"

Mizuki playfully punched Naruto's shoulder and grinned, making Naruto glare death at the man, the silent warning already said. Mizuki scratched the back of his head, "I like that about you Naruto-kun, your straight forward,"

"You haven't yet answered my question,"

"Can we go somewhere private first? I think we're being watched,"

Naruto began to wonder at this; they were now directly in front of his apartment but he didn't trust Mizuki to let him in, the man wanted him to commit a crime for crying out loud. Naruto's goggles glowed a faint red and he looked around, the chakra signatures he found were only civilians staying inside their apartments, no one else,

"There's no one listening in,"

"I'll take your word for it; I want you to steal something from me, the forbidden scroll where all the villages high ranked jutsu are kept,"

"I know of the value but what's in it for me? Matter of fact why can't you steal it yourself?"

"What if I tell you that I will pay you seventy per cent of the money I _will_ get after I sell the scroll?"

"How much is 'seventy per cent'?"

"About 500,000,000ryo in cash,"

"Ok…ok…who's to say I won't rat you out to the Hokage?"

"We both know you won't do that,"

"Oh?" Naruto asked,

"Your gathering money and resources for something I don't know,"

"You've _also_ been stalking me sensei," it was a good thing Naruto was a sensor type, he made sure to emphasize the 'also'; the villages shinobi had been stalking him since he had started in the academy, but by that time he already had a blood locking seal placed inside his apartment door, no one was breaking in unless they blew the whole building up somehow,

"Will you help me or not? Think about it, all that money will go a long way for you no matter what you use it for,"

"Alright, when should I get the scroll?"

"My buyer wants it tonight, you can even be there during the transaction, I assure you he's legit,"

Naruto slowly nodded and shook his former sensei's hand, "see you this night then, let's say…the forest at the east side of the village,"

"Perfect," Mizuki grinned gleefully and waved over his shoulder to the boy, "midnight, don't be late,"

Naruto didn't bother to give him a response; he was busy creating assumptions on why Mizuki was so insistent it was _him_ that got the forbidden scroll. Maybe it was because he thought Naruto would get caught and when Naruto would accuse him the older shinobi would have the superiority card, maybe Mizuki thought that the traps would kill him, maybe Mizuki wanted to kill him so he could have all of the money himself, or maybe Mizuki just wanted to kill him in some sort of elaborate scheme. He didn't really care, stealing the forbidden scroll would be the ultimate test for his skills in stealth, and if things went south he could always fall back on his innocence mask. His innocence mask was a façade he created that had unfailingly gotten him out of suspicion during the days academy children had been disappearing for four hours and reappearing with no knowledge of what had transpired within that time, Naruto though was never present when the disappearing's were happening so naturally people would initially become suspicious but they were cleared of it after they had tracked Naruto to a library.

Naruto knew that his innocent façade wouldn't be enough to set him free from any criminal charges he would get if he was caught so he pondered on another way to go about it. He walked through the house in deep thought and instinctively went to his bathroom; he closed the door and set a locking seal in place, a solid creation that required his blood to unlock. He went to the bathroom mirror and placed his palm on the surface, he suspected the silent alarm seal at his destination was ringing and he counted to five before he channelled chakra, just as a shadow clone in his warehouse placed his own palm on the wall of his office. A complex seal spiralled into view on the surfaces and a burst of chakra smoke covered them. Naruto looked around and saw that he was in his modesty furnished office situated in the abandoned warehouse, while the clone was back in his apartment bathroom. The body switch seal was not as advanced as most thought, it was a level five seal with unknown origins that was an alternative for the basic body switch ninjutsu but it was used for far distances.

The boy pulled off his now well fitted hoodie and hung it on a coat rack in favour of putting on a doctor's lab coat. He looked around his office; decorated with soothing blue paint on the walls and a solid oak desk with smooth edges, his chair was soft and comfortable but not too soft. There were stacks and stacks of books neatly placed on book shelves in the wall on opposite sides of the room and behind Naruto's desk were organised racks he kept spare lab instruments in case the one in the lab/warehouse break. They were held in a thick, see through glass container that was protected by a padlock and a blood seal. The boy smoothly walked out of his office, his calf length white lab coat swishing with him as he entered the containment room he kept his test animals. During Ashitori's time in using the lab he had created a make shift wall where he received buyers of his drugs while a single door led them to his laboratory, Naruto had torn down that division and expanded the lab even more.

He curtly walked through a room where caged animals were kept; not even flinching when a giant tiger leaped at him but bounced off the reinforced steel bars that contained it. He exited the room and grabbed the clip board hooked to the wall near the door, he idly twirled his pen and read through what the clipboard said, his eyes flicked up at the few clones scurrying around his lab and performing general maintenance before his eyes flicked to the far end of the lab where a ceiling high glass container stood proudly. The boy smiled lightly and walked to it, inside the large glass container was what could be considered a 'slice of the forest'; there were a few shrubs, trees and plants there. He whistled and a light skittering sound met his ears before a monstrous sized spider pushed out of the ground from a hidden burrow. The spider had a blue with red harshly designed abdomen that had the white kanji for 'Queen Spider' on top, each letter was speckled with complex seals that combined to form the words, it's legs the same height as Naruto and its trunk was black. Its eight red eyes blinked at Naruto and a single black leg delicately touched the glass container,

Naruto smiled at the spider and tapped the glass barrier with his pen, "how are you feeling today, Queen?"

The spider seemed to roll her leg and experimentally tested all of her legs, "I feel great, Naruto-sama," it hissed, Naruto jotted down its reply,

"My clones say you haven't been resisting your shots, you will be rewarded," Naruto snapped his fingers and a clone walked forward and slipped a small scroll through a one way opening, a quick burst of chakra to the scroll and two dead cows popped out, the spider wasted no time to tear its arm length red fangs into the fat creatures and injected a corroding venom into them, "your bone growth and development charts are very impressive, Queen, you can now hit a tree without injuring yourself," the spider kept quiet as it kept on sucking the dead cows like drinks, still raptly paying attention to what Naruto was saying, "the nature chakra summoning seals haven't been affecting you because you are an animal," he flipped a page on the clip board, "it has fully integrated itself into your bones and your organs…now you have an official chakra network, congratulations,"

"Thank you, Naruto-sama," the spider bowed subserviently, "I wouldn't have it if it wasn't for you,"

Naruto waved the praised away, "your charts tell me that you have already laid eggs… _a lot_ of eggs in your cave…"

"Oh yes," the spider hissed, "the sperm came from some spider donors' your clones had gathered,"

"I estimate they would hatch in…three weeks, they are your first children and I'm sure they are still getting used to having nature chakra and my chakra in them,"

Naruto had taken his interest in spiders to a whole new level when he had read about Hatake Kakashi. The copy ninja had personally raised his summons and had used his limited experience in fuinjutsu to create a summoning realm for the dogs, which wasn't exactly a pocket dimension like most believed but more of an expanse of land Kakashi bought and sealed into a complex storage seal only he could activate... this was super simplified version of what Kakashi really did. Naruto, after relentless digging and smuggling, had found out that there wasn't a spider clan anywhere so he added creating a spider clan to his many goals in life. The first thing he did was cross breed a common house spider with a desert duster, then he had cross bred the off springs with another species of spider, the survivors would cross breed with more spiders Naruto smuggled in from all over the elemental nations until only three multiple breed spiders remained. The idea of cross breeding a creature with so many of its kind would seem impossible if Naruto had not been well known to defy the impossible on a daily basis. Naruto picked the strongest multiple breed of spiders and harvested the sperm from the other, this was where his work got harder. He took a single drop of spider semen and was pushing small pulses of chakra into it for a full year until the semen turned a soft blue. He then took the eggs from the strongest, and still living, female, which in on itself was a difficult feat since that female was now twice his size and very carnivorous, and began to gently push Kyuubi chakra into a single drop, this was done through an air tight seal reinforced seal to prevent any one detecting it. The first attempt was a horrible failure with the drop evaporating on contact with the vile chakra but Naruto had proved his Uzumaki persistence by administering growth hormones to the strongest spider, he kept a close eye on the development and again harvested the eggs. This time there was a small delay before the egg samples exploded. The blonde boy administered custom made blood builders' that was specifically created for spiders, bone thickening drugs and muscle growth hormones to the female spider.

The result was that the spider got even _**bigger**_ , more intimidating, and more uncontrollable, so much so that Naruto had to move her container outside the lab in case she ever broke out. The drugs he had given were a good idea but on contact with the demon chakra it delayed half a day before it exploded. The boy then took some brain fluid from the feral female spider and injected it into a lone egg, the result was the egg taking the fluid completely and reinforcing its biological makeup. This time the Kyuubi chakra was willingly taken for half a year. Naruto then combined the eggs and the sperms and carefully recorded everything that was happening for yet another year, when the eggs hatched there were three dozen baby spiders that peered up at him inquisitively, not showing the maniacal traits of their mother. From there it was a survival of the fittest for the spiders until only Queen remained the top of the food chain.

The first spider he had gotten eggs from had entered a whole new stage of feral; Naruto had no option but to sedate her for an unknown period of time. His studies with nature chakra had told him that animals exposed to huge amount of the chakra would turn docile and calm, as seen even more when he had applied the seal on Queen Spider. The Queen had said that she was now able to think clearly, all the individual minds of the spider species inside her had now merged and were speaking in one voice, her voice. Naruto had applied a nature chakra summoning seal onto the massive sleeping first spider and the result, after about three months of continuous exposure, was its black hair and skin turning grey and its size reducing to about Naruto's height when he was nine. He had already pulled the spider out of her forced coma and, much to Naruto's surprise, the spider had taken up clothe making, soothing, calm, quality clothe making. The spider had also been attending the classes her daughter took to learn how to speak, extending it even further by learning how to write. He called the grey, elderly looking spider 'Sagi'. It was her clothes Naruto now used for clothes; Sagi could basically make anything he asked for as long as it was a form of clothing.

Naruto turned to his right and waved to Sagi; the elderly spider was sitting in her own glass container, surrounded by a similar looking forest habitat. Sagi beamed at him, her serrated teeth hidden behind her pincer fangs gleaming happily. She was in the middle of meditating while she balanced on one needle-like protrusion from the ground with all six of her legs while two legs touched each other at the tips. She had said that she had read about summoning elders and was now perfecting her control so she would fit the position of summoning elders. Sagi didn't have Naruto or Kyuubi's chakra in her, just pure nature chakra and that chakra quickly incorporated into her system, this meant that she was the only one that would be able to perfectly perform sage mode among any spider that she gave birth to. Naruto supported her in her ambition by supplying her with history books on the elemental nations and on clan summons. Sagi waved back with one of her legs and went back to her mediation. Another thing the older spider was working on was creating spider clan based jutsu; so far it was coming along well enough.

The nature chakra summoning seal was a level five S rank seal Naruto made use of carefully on the surviving spider; it was just a stroke of luck that the seal just so happened to not negatively affect animals. The eager-to-please physical manifestation of Naruto's determination, Queen Spider, had taken all the tests Naruto had given gladly and was now able to grow as large as the Hokage tower if she found the strength to. As gruelling and borderline cruel as Naruto's tests were she didn't complain or hesitate, she had learnt quickly that she was merely a tool to reach ambition and she honestly didn't mind, Naruto hadn't willingly abused her and she would literally not be alive if he wasn't there. The added power that flowed through her body peacefully felt great and she knew that Naruto had the power to take it from her; she could never bring herself to harm Naruto, physically or emotionally.

Naruto had encountered the Kyuubi when he had tested a pain killer on himself, a drug that turned out to be a weed killer. The boy blamed it on the fact that he was six years old and still very naïve when it came to science. He was sick for a whole week and the great beast had used the reduced mental protection to pull Naruto into the mindscape for a chat. Kyuubi had told Naruto that he didn't really care what Naruto did all in the name of his life's ambition, as long as he didn't die. Naruto acknowledged that there was a lot he could learn from Kyuubi and Kyuubi saw Naruto a little competent, for a child, so it was inevitable that they would enter a mutual benefit alliance; Naruto had access to Kyuubi's chakra and could ask for help whenever he needed it while Kyuubi had extended his senses from Naruto so it included hearing and even to an extent feeling.

The Kyuubi jinchuriki was now instructing the massive spider queen to perform different motions and actions; he ordered Queen to balance on a single leg while the remaining seven legs stretched and touched over her, then to spin a web as quickly as possible. He estimated that the strength of a single web was that of the solid steel support pillars holding up the corners of the Kage's tower, not yet up to the main support pillar but a close second, while at the same time it remained as flexible as a rubber band. Queen was able to fire these webs from her abdomen, eight legs or her mouth; Naruto had been researching on how he could harness this ability into himself. The most he could come up with was taking the chemicals that created the webs from Queen's abdomen and soaking ninja wire in them, this allowed the wire to recreate this ability but to a much lesser extent. He kept the long roll of special ninja wire in a compartment in his senbon launchers for when he would need them.

Creating a summoning realm from scratch wasn't going to be easy, far from it actually; a standard animal summoning seal consisted of a many complex seals, a notable one was called the infinity seal, which meant that the summoning realm wasn't in some sort of astral realm rather it was in an over powered storage dimension where the very air was raw with natural chakra and energy. It was inhabitable for human but animals thrived in the natural atmosphere. All infinity seals were connected to each other, whether they were made since the dawn of shinobi history or even recently like Hatake Kakashi, so it was possible for one summons to visit the other in the summoning dimension (or as it is popularly called 'summoning realm'). Infinity seals though required blood sacrifice, which was why scrolls were presented by the animal summons for the person to sign his name in blood, the signature itself was very useless but the blood was the chief requirement, the dramatics of the signature was just a formality. Hand seals followed the summoning seal especially when a blood sacrifice was given. Information about the animal summoning seal was not secret because the village found out that virtually no one was interested in studying far into fuinjutsu, so the information was more for show rather than application, hand seals had taken the place of the fuinjutsu for animal summons.

Naruto prided himself on being a very good researcher, or even an investigator, so how to create an animal summoning seal for a new animal summons almost from scratch was given to in his level four training scroll for fuinjutsu, and also from catching a long glimpse of Kakashi's own summoning scroll after he had won a game of cards. The process was pain stacking; first the animals he wanted to summon had to be ready and willing to perform the necessary requirements, then he would have to draw the extremely complex animal summoning seal on a very thick sheet of paper and have to constantly supply chakra into it to keep it 'fresh', then he would have to find an expanse of land that he was absolutely sure would accommodate his summons, this stage was usually done by exploring elemental nations for a terrain that his summons would thrive in. After the terrain had been found he had been _recommended_ to purchase the land because the process of 'scanning, copying and replicating' the land into the infinity seal usually took three days despite constant supply of chakra, this was because the detail in the newly purchased land had to be perfect and flawless if not the new summoning clan would break apart. He would know that the process was done when the seal abruptly stopped pulsing out chakra through the ground and through the air, then he would have to carefully tore the animals into the scroll, immediately after entering the expanse of land would 'register' the life force of the creature and that was that. If Naruto wanted he could entrust the animal summoning scroll to a summons for safe keeping or he could keep it himself, his choice.

This process was also regarding the fact that the summoning clan he wanted to create didn't already exist, if not the infinity seal in the summoning seal would suck him in as well and assimilate him with the rest of the realm, which was usually by turning him into the animal summons he wanted to create a clan for then a few hours later he would turn to stone. Naruto though was a hundred per cent sure that there was no such thing as the spider summoning clan; his plan was that a week before the eggs were to hatch he would have already found a place to 'scan'.

The blonde boy sighed deeply and ran his fingers through his hair; raising a four hundred pound spider queen was like raising a horse, a very smart, verbally articulate, eight legged horse. He had educated her on how to read and had helped give her ideas on abilities she could perform with her new nature chakra network, though he left the bulk for her since it was all up to her on how to use the nature chakra. He reached in through the small window where he could feed Queen and pet her head, the female spider hissed in approval and lowered her head in subservience. He pulled his arm out and turned around, walking to a desk where a powerful microscope stood proudly, gleaming in the bright fluorescent lights in the lab. The clone there shifted out of his way and he looked into the eye piece; there was a small, flat circular container under the microscope and inside were two blood samples that had been divided by a solid glass panel, he looked over his shoulder and said,

"Have you started the tests?"

The clone shook his head, "no, boss, I was just about to start,"

"Don't mind if I do then," Naruto said and turned a knob on the microscope so he could peer closer at the two blood samples, one was gotten from him and the other was from Queen, he handed his clipboard to the clone behind him and pointed at a new, state of the art screen, "keep watch, tell me if you notice something abnormal," on the screen was the same thing he was examining with his microscope. He carefully used his index finger to push the glass panel out of the way and the blood flowed together, the deep red and deep green blood mingled, he adjusted a knob and watched in fascination as his red blood cell merged with Queen's, "first test seems to be going well," the clone wrote down what his boss had said, "no complications so far…maybe because her blood contains some properties from mine…"

He furrowed his eyebrows and closed his left eye, still hidden behind his goggles, and gently turned another knob, "boss?"

"My white blood cells are killing hers…how is that even possible?"

"Maybe because of the Kyuubi?" the clone suggested and scribbled something down,

"Probably," the blood samples now looked like they were at war with each other, the red blood cells had merged, one to another, but the white blood cells were _**eating**_ Queen's, though the platelets merely brushed past each other and their general colour rippled to blue before both turned red with the blood. The blood war continued for three minutes until only a single one of his white blood cells remained; his cell was still dissolving and absorbing Queen's when the budding scientist was about to call the experiment a failure until…lone defender cell divided into two identical looking cells, the cells continued subdividing until they were more than enough, some died and they were quickly replaced by another. Naruto bit his bottom lip to contain the happily laugh but he did pump his fist in the air,

"First test is successful," the clone wrote this down, "we leave it for a week, keeping up constant inspections, before we move to the second test,"

"Hai, boss,"

Naruto had been testing the prospect of injecting himself with advanced spider blood gotten straight from Queen. The test was an initial success but it told him that if he was to eventually inject himself he had better be ready to be in a world of pain and fluctuating sickness, he only hoped his status as a jinchuriki would prove itself even more. This was probably because Queen contained over five hundred species of spider gathered from all over the elemental nations and brought to Naruto through shady dealings and smuggling.

Naruto pumped his fist in the air again before he felt a small tingle on his shoulder from the silent alarm connected to the body switch seal, half a second later he felt a clone tap his shoulder and presented a medium sized scroll to him, "someone slipped this into my pocket, boss"

Naruto's eyebrows shot into his hairline; he wasn't scheduled to receive any secret message this month, "who could it be?" he murmured, he unrolled the scroll and read:

 _Dearest Naruto-kun,_

 _How's my little scientist doing? I know I've not been the best god mother to you and from the bottom of my heart I am very sorry, I am currently not in Konoha right now. The only way I have been able to send my first three gifts to you was through a spy I had from Waterfall that left the gifts for you on your doorstep. Despite this I know you Naruto-kun and even though I may be a little too late I love you with all my heart; my picture of you may be a little out dated, it's one of you when you just started in the academy, I think you were eight. Speaking of the academy, I know as a fact you inherited Minato-kun's genius, I knew your father, he was the best thing that happened to me believe it or not. Though I am not his blood sister I might as well be. Minato liked spiders too you know, he was absolutely fascinated with them but…he was always too busy learning seals with_ _ **Jiriaya**_ _or hanging out with_ _ **Kushina**_ _, your mother. He was a sweet guy, he never liked to disappoint, sort of like you._

 _I have planted some suggestions in Mizuki Touji's head about you; if I am correct, which I usually am, he wants you to steal the forbidden scroll so you two can sell it to a 'mysterious buyer'. Yeah…no, it's a trap, he wants to kill you. I pushed him in your direction because I have a gut feeling that you have reached a snag in your research, consider him my fourth present to you. Don't hold back, he has a defective 'Cursed seal of Heaven' on him, I'm sure you will trounce him either way. He will probably be fuelled by anger and vengeance so don't let anything he says get to you, I'm sure you are Minato's son so_ _nothing_ _will get to you._

 _You're a shinobi now, I hear, so that means you can handle money on your own. I have sealed 500,000,000 ryu into this letter; don't worry, I have many secret accounts in several hidden villages; I merely retrieved ten million from each of them, the banks are usually used by rich people so withdrawing that high amount of money won't raise any eyebrows. Money is no object to me, Naruto-kun, and for you I can shower all the riches in the world if it's to get you to your goal._ _When_ _we meet we can talk more, I promise. Consider the money your fifth gift._

 _I also want to tell you that whatever path you choose I will be behind you all the way._

 _With love,_

 _Orochimara of the Sannin, Snake sage._

 _P.S here's a jutsu that will help you break into the Hokage's tower, I learnt it in Iwagakure, it's called the 'Chameleon skin tone jutsu', it shouldn't be too hard if you use shadow clones to learn it. It's C rank so it shouldn't be too hard._

Naruto scanned the letter for any sort of illusion or any chakra finger prints before he furrowed his eyebrows in thought; he now apparently had a missing ninja Sannin as a god mother. He sniffed slightly and caught the hinted scent of blood, snakes and roses, the blood slightly overpowered the rest of the scents but he still caught them clearly. It actually made sense that Orochimara was his god mother, he resembled the Yondaime so much and since the Fourth was a high official he would have to have someone high up there as well. He wondered who his god father was though; the man wasn't even making an effort to contact him. At least he could sympathize with Orochimara; she was a missing ninja and a highly ranked one at that, the snake woman wouldn't be able to visit him personally. He gently rolled up the scroll and tucked it into his pants pocket; he would cherish the letter till the end, even if he didn't show it.

He looked around and noticed that his clones were staring at him, "what? Get back to work," he barked and marched to the massive main door of the lab while his shadow clones went back to attending to his many experiments. He grabbed a mechanical crank on a door and pulled backwards, the doors lifted up like a garage door, allowing fresh air to rustle through the lab. About fifty paces before him and around the lab was the pitch black forest where the sounds of night life came from, he took in a deep breathe and walked out, not afraid that the air he was letting in could contaminate his work or even of how dark the forest around him was. It looked to be about an hour after sunset so that gave him about five hours to prepare for his mission, as he walked he held up a single _ram_ hand seal and a clone popped into life beside him, he gave his white coat to the clone, showing that he was wearing a plain black under vest. He tinkered with his senbon launchers before he summoned another clone, "learn that jutsu and make more clones to practice it, I need to get it right this night," then to his sparring partner clone he said, "don't hold back," the copy of Naruto nodded curtly and both darted at each other.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

An orange glow flashed from a corner far from the Kage's tower before it disappeared, as if it hadn't happened in the first place. A slight protrusion rose from the shadow cast by a two storey residential building and darted out, under the soft glow of the moon it looked like a black blob. The person rubbed his black glove covered hands and leaped onto the side of a building as his senses warned him of a chunin running rounds through the street, the person was probably not a sensor if not he would have been forced to knock him out. As the oblivious shinobi passed by he skittered across the wall and flipped dexterously onto the roof, the small light that shone down on him showed that the person wore a long sleeved black shirt and black calf length shinobi pants, his fingers were covered in black gloves and his feet was also in black sandals, ones that barely made a sound when it touched the ground. Over his head was a full head ski mask, hiding his blonde hair, with a fox ANBU mask attached to the face, his black goggles still under the mask like it wasn't there in the first place. On his wrists close to his elbow were his silver senbon launchers though they were covered under smooth black metal, leaving only the launching points to poke out of the top. He also had a small black back pack on his back that held any equipment he needed in emergencies,

Naruto adjusted his mask, briefly looked up and again seemed to melt into the shadow cast by the ledge of the building. Light foot falls padded as he ran at mid chunin speed, opting for stealth than speed, before he reached the very edge of the Kage's tower, he flipped through a few hand seals, _"Chameleon skin tone jutsu,"_ his body rippled and he was out of sight, or more like he blended in with the surface of the tower, even if the moon light hit him it would still seem like he wasn't there in the first place. The boy whipped out two senbon from his pants pockets and jammed them into the sides of the building; he used the senbon to launch himself high into the air and gently placed his feet on the building, his chakra keeping him in place. He made a slightly violent yanking motion with his hands and the senbon were pulled out and went back to Naruto's hands, he placed the back into his pockets, unafraid if they pricked him and he skittered over the side of the building eerily like a spider. His hidden goggles adjusted perfectly in the darkness as he peered into the highest window in the tower, correctly assuming that that would be where the forbidden scroll was kept.

He kept track of the guard rotation and noticed that there were silent alarm seals on the windows. He quietly pulled out a finger sized scroll from his pocket and just as the lone ANBU operative marched downstairs he unrolled the scroll and placed it on the window, a barely perceptible blue flash occurred that Naruto hid under him, still in his chameleon jutsu so no one noticed, not even the tiny chakra burst,

' _Sixty seconds,'_ he mentally said and he slipped a senbon out of his sleeve, soaked in an blue unknown substance, and created a clean circle on the glass window, he flipped through and hastily grabbed the falling circle of glass into his safe grip, hanging onto the wall through surface walking, he placed the circle back in place and the glass went back to how it originally was, unblemished. The seal he had used on the window was to freeze every other seal within the room and on the window for a minute, so no silent alarm was pulsed to the Hokage as he mutely touched down on the floor. He crouched down and studied the scrolls location, placed on a pedestal in the middle of the room. He levelled his right fist at the scroll and took careful aim before he fired a senbon, connected to a semi-invisible piece of ninja wire, the ninja needle jammed onto the top corner of the scroll and Naruto reeled it in, catching the scroll as it came at him.

He exited the same way he came and with the same special senbon just as all the alarm seals came back online. He dropped from the building and shot a senbon connected to ninja wire to the roof to slow down his drop, he pulled back his weapons and ran quickly to where he was to drop off the scroll with Mizuki. He skidded to a stop when he saw a ninken running as fast as it could in the general direction of the Sarutobi residence. He accurately fired barrage after barrage of knock out poison senbon from his launcher but the swift canine dodged most of them, besides a six needles that stabbed its calf's and hits side, and disappeared into the night. Naruto shook his head silently, the dog had be as strong as an ox to not be knocked out immediately; he too disappeared into the night, making sure not to use surface walking so the ninja wouldn't track him easily.

The dog whimpered and swayed as it ran, fighting the chemicals that tried to coo it to sleep. It wasn't so strong however and it slumped on the ground, half a second later a chunin landed beside it and his eyes widened when he saw a oozing senbon sticking out of the dogs legs and side,

"Naruto," Iruka whispered and felt for the dogs pulse, he sighed when he found one. He summoned a single shadow clone, "go get Sandaime-sama and tell him there's something wrong going on, take the dog with you, I can't just leave him out here," the clone nodded mutely and ran off to the Sandaime's house with the dog hefted on his shoulder, "what are you doing Naruto?" he pelted down the road the dog had taken and found a trail of senbon sticking out of the ground, now he was sure it was Naruto; Naruto was the _only_ genin in the graduating class that specialized in using senbon with this accuracy.

Naruto dropped out of the treeline into a small clearing, he set the large scroll against a tree and took off his fox mask, he took in a few deep breathes, "what a rush," he said quietly, under his breathe. He placed his mask into his back pack and sat down by the scroll in a huff, "I should do this more," his goggle protected eyes glanced over to the scroll and he was about to reach for it until he heard a rustling in the bushes in front of him, he suppressed a small groan when it was Iruka that came out, "Iruka-sensei?"

"Naruto what the hell have you gotten yourself into?"

Naruto cocked his head to the side innocently, a sight that sent shivers down the chunins spine because with the eerie moonlight shining down on Naruto he looked like a pale creature born straight from madness and darkness, "I don't understand…"

"Don't give me that," his eyes widened even more when he saw the forbidden scroll seated next to Naruto, Naruto saw his expression and he smoothly got to his feet, putting his hands in the silent motion for him to calm down, "the forbidden scroll…"

"I can explain-"

"Why do you have it? Did you plan on selling it? You plan on selling konoha's most treasured secrets?!"

"Iruka-sensei calm down," Naruto said and was carefully approaching the teacher; the man stubbornly stood his ground,

"I can't let you do-" his distraction cost him, seven spinning stars nailed his side and he fell to the ground, the blood pumping out of his body was incredible, he tried to stumble to his feet but was savagely kicked to a tree courtesy of Mizuki.

The silver haired teacher grinned at Naruto, an evil, toothy grin, "he was getting noisy," Naruto watched in fascination as his sensei wheezed for air, correctly judging that his left lung had been punctured by two of the shuriken, "quite frankly I'm not surprised you managed to get the scroll Naruto, you sure do know how to do the impossible huh,"

Naruto shrugged, "where is the buyer?" already knowing that there was no buyer,

"Mizuki… you traitor!"

"Oh shut up, Iruka. There is no buyer, Naruto-kun, I lied,"

"Shocker," the boy murmured and shook his head, "I don't think you understand, I'm very sure that Iruka-sensei has somehow notified the Hokage, they'll be here in twenty minutes tops, we don't have time," acting had always been one of Naruto's strong suits,

"No I don't think _**you**_ understand what's going on. I lied to you, I tricked _**you**_ Naruto Uzumaki and now I'm going to get my revenge for everything you've done,"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I don't remember doing anything to you,"

An evil chuckle escaped Mizuki's lips, "do you know why people hate you so much?"

"No Mizuki! That's an S rank secret!" Iruka managed to wheeze out as he struggled to his feet by supporting a tree, "don't listen to him Naruto, he's lying,"

"What secret?" Naruto asked,

"That you're the Kyuubi! The Yondaime sealed that… _ **thing**_ inside you and now you are the Kyuubi!" the traitor removed a fuuma shuriken from his back, "and now I'm going to finish what the Yondaime started!" he hurled the spinning star at Naruto, who he thought was in a daze,

Naruto was about to step aside until he felt a small spray of blood on his black shirt, his teacher had taken the weapon for him, "was that really necessary sensei?" he sarcastically asked but the man had already lost too much blood to know the difference between a sarcastic question and a tearful, soul wrenching question,

"You're not…the Kyuubi…Naruto-kun,"

"Yes…I figured as much a while ago,"

Iruka seemed to have tactically ignored what he said, "you're a proud shinobi, Naruto-kun, and I'm proud of you," he crumpled to the ground bonelessly,

"Thanks?"

A split second later he fired a senbon at his teachers unconscious neck, the amnesia/memory gap drug already taking effect; he wanted his former class teacher to be able to testify in his defence after everything was done, he didn't want to defect from Konoha…yet.

"He's a fool," Mizuki spat madly, "don't worry…I'll make your death long and painful, it's what I owe you," the silver haired traitor whipped out a kunai and ran at Naruto. His god mother had already warned him of this sort of thing happening so he flipped backwards away from a brutal slash aimed for his throat, leading the fight into the denser parts of the forest, a place he thrived the most. As the teacher was looking around for him, swivelling his neck around frantically as he tried to peer into the darkness, Naruto's head slowly protruded out from behind a tree trunk. He licked his lips and accurately fired five senbon into the man's flak jacket protected back, the senbon were fired in a straight line so they all nailed the same place. The man grunted and slashed around blindly, Naruto shot five more senbon that jammed into the man's thigh, paralyzing it immediately after the last on hit. He tried to limp out of the forest but Naruto stabbed a needle to Mizuki's neck, the man crumpled to the floor limply. He admired his clean work with a proud smile before he sealed the unconscious man into a storage scroll, a timer started in his mind on how long before Mizuki ran out of oxygen.

The boy slipped out of the forest and knelt down beside Iruka, the man was swirly eyed from the drug and Naruto retrieved his senbon. He tapped the man's cheek to get his attention and when the inebriated man did he quickly muttered, "Mizuki tricked me so I could steal the scroll, saying it was to recruit me into a secret faction of the ANBU if I managed to retrieve the forbidden scroll, he planned on killing me but I over powered him with shadow clones, you were injured from protecting me, Mizuki was torn apart by my clones and his body parts are all scattered in the wind," Iruka nodded drunkenly, "you won't remember what happened that is contrary to what I have said," Naruto allowed a small burst of Kyuubi chakra to leave his boy and not even a minute later numerous ANBU operatives leaped down and surrounded him and Iruka, the Hokage dropped down directly in front of him and ordered for Iruka to be taken to the hospital. The kami of shinobi stared at Naruto and the boy put on his best innocent face,

"What happened here, Naruto?"

Naruto sighed and replied, "It's a long story,"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 **Chameleon skin tone jutsu** **: this is a C rank attack that originated from Iwagakure for ninja that worked on infiltration at night. It replicates what the chameleon does when it is hiding from a predator but with only one known downside; it cannot work under the sun, even if it is sunset.**

 **Well that' the first chapter down. How was it?**

 **Again in this story there is no such thing as the spider clan, or even the arachnid clan for that matter. I'll replace Kidomaru in the Sound five with someone else just as competent. Since Queen Spider (or the spider queen) has virtually all of the species of spider in her it will make her superior even to those that she hasn't given birth to; if spiders she didn't give birth to meet her then they will instinctively bend to her will and if she encounters any spider that somehow is not incorporated in her DNA the same will be the result. In that case all Naruto has to do now is just taking a sample from the new species of spider and inject it into Queen Spider. Sagi is going to be the spider clan elder but I'm not too sure to make her into an oracle, and if I** _ **did**_ **want to make her an oracle** _ **how**_ **would I go about it without it seeming too outlandish (yes, I'm sure there is such thing as outlandish in 'Naruto'). Y'know what? I'm not going to make her an oracle, I'll leave that for the toads and any other summons that have oracles.**

 **Naruto's development is kind of understandable if you look at it well; he starts off at five and gains entry into a civilian gambling house under the guise of a 'short millionaire' who doesn't carry his money everywhere he goes. We can all admit that Naruto has the devil's luck (even though it is borderline** _ **unbelievable**_ **) so gambling up money until he gets the attention of the higher up gamblers who invite him to gamble with them isn't too unbelievable when we apply it to Naruto. He wins, gets money, favours, stolen jutsu and aid in something, like in fuinjutsu. I didn't know where to fit this in in the story but he didn't visit the lab for two years (when he was five to seven) until he had managed to gather enough money and cleaning supplies, learning the body switch seal would happen in those seven years. And since the ninja disregarded him until he started in the academy he was able to sneak into the forest unnoticed and apply the other half of the body switch seal to the lab. I apologize for not putting it into the story.**

 **Next chapter is going to have a shocking twist to what I thought should have happened in canon. I assure you all that I will not be comply with canon, so stick around if you don't mind. I'm planning on making this story not more than ten chapters but if I do manage to finish this story I'll make a sequel (this all depends on if it is received well). This sequel I'm thinking of is a** **crossover** **.**

 **Don't forget to drop a review on what you think,**

 **See you all later,**

 **Foy.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Yo!**

 **Thank you all very much for your wicked awesome reviews :D**

 **I kinda went out of control when I was writing this story; 'Jungle' by Nasty C (I DO NOT OWN) was blasting in my ears and my hands had a mind of their own… I regret nothing XD**

CHAPTER 2

A person wearing all black ninja uniform, sans the usual flak jacket, ran through Konoha's forest. This person was Naruto and he was wearing his spy uniform, even his white fox ANBU mask, the boy was running at low jounin speed past konoha's borders.

Stealing the forbidden scroll and revealing a traitor had worked positively for him; the Sandaime, even though he was still highly suspicious of Naruto, had acknowledged that he wasn't to blame for what happened, Naruto may have been classified as a genius but there was still a lot about Konoha he wasn't aware of...or so he thought. He had been paid for a full A rank mission and Naruto had asked for the money to be paid to him in cash. Then Hiruzen had in-depthly quizzed the boy on how he was able to steal an S rank scroll from the most protected building in the village, Naruto was in no mood to reveal the _real_ way he had infiltrated the building so he created a tall tale. He said he had charged head first and by passed the relaxed ANBU before he broke into the room. This revelation forced Naruto to be re-evaluated completely on his rank, he had found out that he had formerly been placed in team eight with Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame but then with his prodigious show of skills in infiltration Hiruzen insisted that he be re-evaluated. He had a formal re-evaluation scheduled in a week, almost to the corresponding the day before the new genin were getting their teams but his re-evaluation was set a day before that; he was to report to the Hokage bright and early, spend the whole day being tested in both the written and physical aspects of his knowledge. Naruto agreed to this because if he was in a higher rank he would have a little more freedom, the downside though was that he would have to report to the Sandaime if he wished to do anything outside the village.

Now though he had asked Hiruzen for a week to get ready, allowing him free reign to go outside of Konoha, he even permitted the Sandaime to administer a tracking seal on him and for an ANBU squad to be checking in on him every once in a while.

The boy's goggles shone a faint red, escaping the eye holes in his mask, and he could clearly see the small traces of nature chakra in the air, no one was around for miles, besides the small ANBU squad that had been tailing him miles back, that is but nothing he should be too worried about. Naruto's goggles were special in a unique way, disregarding the fact that he could do a number of things with it, he could also see through any genjutsu even if he didn't mentally command it to do so, the downside was that if he went under a Henge his goggles would still be in place. The goggles would only disappear if Naruto lowered the genjutsu detection guards on his goggles, allowing the goggles to slip under his own illusion, though this left him open for manipulation through a genjutsu.

The fox mask wearing boy dashed out of the tree line and burst out of the borders of Konoha, making sure to stay at the very edge of Iwagakure. His planned destination was a country situated beside Mountain country, where it was said that Uchiha Madara had destroyed as training before he fought, and lost, against the Shodaime Hokage, Senju Hashirama. The place had been a cursed wasteland ever since with the soil barely producing any grass, the trees bending scarily and being a little on the malnourished side, though they refused to die, and the broken buildings had been overrun by animals. There were reported to be caves and an intricate cave system under that country and the right climate to house his spiders. His spiders didn't necessarily need vegetation to thrive; Queen had confided in him that she loved raw meat and blood. Animals summons didn't necessarily need food to survive in their own plane but it had become an unspoken tradition that they would only eat to prove that they were still alive. Naruto had replicated human blood; he called it synthetic mammalian blood, and had been producing and packing them in a corner of his laboratory until the spider summoning realm was created. Queen Spider had said that it didn't have the same lustre as real human blood but when there was no other option it would have to do.

Mountain country was not too far from Iwagakure but just within running distance of Konoha, so as Naruto spied the first mountain range as he left Iwagakure's borders he allowed himself to stop for a break in a tree. The boy lifted his mask and allowed it to rest at the top of his head while he rubbed his face, tired from all the running. He had been running since sunrise, which was about five hours ago, and he was seriously pushing the limits to his stamina. If he was to be ambushed he would have no other option than to reverse summon the Queen spider to fight for him. He allowed himself an hour to regroup, using it to check over his animal summons creation seal while he idly chomped on an energy bar, drinking some orange juice as well. Thirty minutes, and five energy bars later, and Naruto was rocketing to the cursed country.

He kept running headlong, all the while looking far ahead with his goggles until he abruptly stopped over black soil. The place was just how imagined it; rocks jutting out of the ground, craters that partially smoked from meteors that sometimes hit there exclusively, numerous cave mouths opened around and a thin, gently flowing stream passed into a particularly large cave from the ocean, where he assumed the network of caverns and pathways were, all of this still withstanding the fact that the temperature was just right, the weather was fantastic and the sparse vegetation was good. There were dilapidated buildings all around; some fully crumbled others barely even able to stay up. Just to be sure that the place was how he heard it was he summoned dozens of shadow clones to look around while he personally set up a barrier powerful enough to cover the country, which was just small enough for him to cover. A clone popped, informing him that there were small, feral badgers and jackals' that roamed far ahead, and another informed him that some lions had claimed a small cliff as their territory. He received memories from another clone that there was a small cave that inhabited blind birds. The budding scientist cancelled his clone jutsu, wincing from the backlash of memories he received; he raised an eyebrow when he saw a small beach made out of black sand. He next summoned more clones and ordered them to round up all of the animals into a single cave, knock them out and seal them into a scroll, insects and bugs were exceptions. As his clones left, the original Naruto took his time to draw the intricate infinity seal in where he assumed was the very centre of the cursed village, then he drew ten more at the edges, just inside the barrier. The barrier was to keep out any more birds or animals from entering while at the same time keep the squad of ANBU back, blocking what he was doing from their vision.

Three hours of tiring work and a clone ran to the original, handing him a scroll and telling him that all the animals were rounded up; the reason he had rounded up the animals was so that after he had scanned the cursed village he would hand them to the spiders to do whatever they deemed fit, for the animals that had managed to escape his clones it was only a matter of time before they too would be eaten.

Naruto smiled to himself at his work and finally made camp for the night near the infinity seal in the middle of the cursed village, making sure to set traps for any animal that wanted to attack him. Tomorrow would be when he would begin 'scanning and replicating' the cursed village.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _One week later_

 _Konohagakure no Sato_

Yugao Uzuki glared lightly at Naruto to intimidate him, who was almost even taller than her at just twelve years old, and said, "Uzumaki Naruto, my name is Uzuki Yugao. Do you know why you are here?" they were in room 42 of the academy; Naruto was sitting down on a chair and desk with a pen in his hand. The boy looked like he hadn't slept in days with the dark rings under his goggle protected eyes and how his skin was now almost a pallid white, he was still wearing his stealth ninja uniform but his silver senbon launchers were placed on the desk beside him. He was reclined in a relaxed position with his feet propped up on the desk and his fingers were laced together over his chest; when he didn't answer her question fast enough, she snapped, "Naruto!"

The boy snorted like he had just woken up and he yawned a little into his hand, "I'm here to be re-evaluated because I broke into the Hokage's tower and stole the forbidden scroll without anyone noticing," she motioned for him to go on, "I might be a better 'asset' for the village if I am given a higher rank by taking higher missions and making higher risks," she smirked at him, "did I miss anything?"

"Yes, your skills so far have been a well-kept secret by yourself since…" she read from a short file about Naruto, "since you were about eight. Your academy scores are astounding, much more than any average student, we wish to know just how skilled you are,"

"Then why wasn't Uchiha Itachi or Hatake Kakashi re-evaluated when they left the academy?"

Yugao skimmed through his academy results and replied, "we have been monitoring their own development since they were born, but you have had a habit of disappearing into your seal protected apartment after the academy dismisses, frequent attempts to break the seal have failed because you apparently put the locking seal _inside_ your apartment, rather than outside, which is ingenious if you ask me. You haven't even been seen training or leaving your house to get food, hence this whole 're-evaluation'"

"You just admitted that the Hokage and possibly every single ninja in this village has been stalking me since I was I was eight," Naruto pointed out, a time he had already managed to gamble up enough money to hire a passable seal master to seal his house off, and learn how to make his own seal.

Yugao shrugged, "as you may know your status as jinchuriki makes you very important, and quite frankly your seclusion makes you a flight risk,"

"Your honesty is well appreciated," Naruto drawled, "now about this test…"

The ANBU captain nodded idly and flipped through Naruto's file and turned around to the teacher's desk, picked up a very thick spiral binder book, dropped it on Naruto's desk with a smirk on her face, "there are a hundred multiple choice questions, and ten theoretical questions; a hundred and ten in total that vary in complexity, length and difficulty…you are to answer all. Multiple choice questions are to be answered with a 2B pencil, the theory part is with a pen. You have four hours to do this, take your time, good luck and your time starts now," she whipped out a stop watch and clicked the top, just as four ANBU guards flipped into the class through the window and stationed themselves at the very corners of the class, "oh, and no cheating, there are eyes everywhere, not just mine,"

Naruto sighed mournfully and dropped his pen, shook both of his hands to get them ready before he opened the first page and pursed his lips. All of the questions were incredibly technical, so technical that he had to actually read through it, once, before he answered them. Naruto wouldn't brag that he knew everything you had to know about being a ninja but he would admit that with the years of observations Ashitori had recorded, personal observations he had made of ninja and the psychological experiments he had conducted on some civilian children and adults, most of this _before_ he had learnt the shadow clone techniques at six, he was fairly sure that he knew more than most jounin. The boy coughed into his fist quietly and licked his lips, he had answered ten questions already, all ten were 'simple' calculations he could make without a calculator so he didn't call for one. He sniffed and rubbed his nose, then his eyes before he answered the fiftieth question, something about the right dose of poison to give a 200 pound lion from mountain country to effectively sedate it for three hours. He rolled his neck and then rolled his right wrist to get feeling back there after he finished the eightieth question, a supposed genin level question about Madara Uchiha's brother. As he finished the multiple question section with a sigh of relief he vaguely noticed that two hours had already been elapsed. He looked up at his supervisor, who was staring at him with her head propped up in her hands, and spared her a quick smile just as he dug into the theoretical section.

Naruto wanted to laugh out loud but he restrained it to a tight deep breathe; five of the questions had to do with animals and a little bit of fuinjutsu, barely even scraping level three of mastery, while four were on general history, going a little bit deeper than what was taught in the academy. Naruto had no intention of holding back any of his knowledge but he also didn't supply any more than necessary, _'no use in show boating,'_ he thought to himself. He surmised that the written test was created just for him to give them an all-round knowledge of what he had acquired in seven years, with or without his shadow clones. Naruto wasn't selfish with what he knew, quite the opposite actually, it was just that he was overly cautious with whom he shared it with, and the entire Konoha shinobi force as well as the civilian populace were in his list of those to never trust. He paused a little on the last question, it was fairly easy to answer and it was written in short, easy to understand words but he hesitated before he finally answered the question.

' **Who do you think your parents are?'**

This little question had him stuck, not because he didn't know his parents, he did, but he was debating on the effects of revealing it in the long run; Iwagakure was still baying for Namikaze blood and Kumogakure was still baying for Uzumaki sperm, it was inevitable that his status would reach their ears if a spy got his hand his answer sheets. To answer the tenth question he put a code within a riddle; the general run down was: who lead in a flash and who soaks red with demons blood? It wasn't his best riddle but it was what his tired brain could come up with without revealing everything. He dropped his pen and rubbed his eyes, "I'm done,"

The ANBU captain smirked and checked her stop watch, "three hours, ten minutes and six seconds. I'm impressed," Naruto shrugged and stifled a small yawn, "you will be given a thirty minute bathroom break and after that you will go to training ground three for your physical evaluation by another instructor. Again, I wish you good luck,"

"Thank you, Uzuki-san,"

"Please…call me Yugao,"

Naruto sent a thumb up and yawned again, this time a little louder and slinked out of the classroom straight to the bathroom to relieve himself. He splashed some water on his face and perched his goggles on his forehead, revealing his red fox-like eyes that blinked back at him. His pupils quivered and dilated as they struggled to adjust to the light in the well-lit bathroom, as the first signs of a migraine started he quickly place his black goggles back on his eyes and rolled his shoulders. He took his time to walk to training ground, idly drinking a fruit juice from a can (pineapple and orange juice), something he kept in large stashes in storage seals on his wrist. He crumbled the can and threw it over his shoulder. He was ten minutes early so he used the small opening for a quick nap, he flipped dexterously onto a branch and reclined, he was out faster than he thought and just as his senses blared seven minutes later he whipped an oozing poisoned senbon from out of nowhere, and held it over Hatake Kakashi's nose. The silent standoff was tense before the jounin chuckled nervously and motioned for the boy to calm down,

"I didn't mean to frighten you, Naruto," he eye smiled and fell off the tree, masterfully getting his feet under him like it was nothing and walking off to the centre of the training ground where Might Gai stood waiting for them,

"I wasn't frightened," Naruto grunted as he dropped off the branch and landed smoothly on his feet,

"Sure you weren't," Kakashi rolled his eye, "do you want to explain to him what's going to happen, Gai, or should I?" as Gai was about to open his mouth to holler out something most likely concerning 'youth' the copy ninja spoke up first, "you know what? Don't worry about it, I'll tell him," Gai laughed loudly and again was about to say something else but Kakashi jumped in just in time, "we are going to give you three tests; one on genjutsu, taijutsu and all at the same time, including ninjutsu. You ready?"

"Sure," Naruto asked as his goggles glinted red, "genjutsu don't work on me," he slapped away the masked man's hand when he went to reach for his goggles, "don't touch,"

"Naruto! You really are a youthfully youthful youth!"

"Umm…"

"Don't mind him. Now for your taijutsu test, Gai, if you don't mind,"

"This must be my cue,"

Naruto's eyes widened and he hastily used his palms to push down on Might Gai's knee when the spandex wearing man blazed to him, he grunted and ducked under a roundhouse kick, rolled back from the subsequent axe kick and had to used his silver senbon launchers to hold off a wicked kick sent to him by the green beast. He was harshly pushed back by the blow until his back almost met a tree at the very edge of the training ground; a wide, excited grin came to his lips as his wide eyes stayed on Gai.

"That was… _amazing_ ," he muttered and Kyuubi rolled his eyes, this was the Uzumaki battle lust beginning to show itself, just like with Kushina. He just hoped that Naruto didn't break both of his arms and tear the muscles in both of his calves like when Kushina's battle lust first reared out its head. The Uzumaki battle lust was a trait in all Uzumaki clan members, whether they were less than a quarter Uzumaki; it could be well controlled or even restrained but the rush gotten in a good, hard fight could not really be replaced, unless Naruto just had be a small fraction of the Uzumaki populace that were also nymphomaniacs. The great beast shook his head on this though, he knew Naruto, and he wasn't even remotely attracted to the female body, _yet_ any way, even if he had studied the female anatomy in perfect detail.

The two jounin quirked their eyebrows at Naruto's almost even maniacal expression and so they didn't expect Naruto to crouch on the ground in a wide, tiger-like stance. He lunged forward and skittered to Gai on his feet; the Strong style user leaned away from a strike to his head and mentally nodded in respect to the perfectly hidden clawed strike to his stomach. Naruto spun on his feet and swung his leg at the taller man, Gai used his forearm to hold off the attack and went to strike, the blow connected but Naruto had already leaned back, so the blow only lightly pushed his chest. They held that position for half a second before Gai opened his palm for a palm strike, Naruto bent under the blow and threw his right fist at the mans unprotected stomach…

Silence reigned as the blow connected; Naruto didn't remain still to revel in his victory though, he was forced to dodge a knee to his chin with his palms again. He did this numerous times while at the same to time he kept on sliding back, each knee kept getting stronger until Naruto abruptly stopped and smoothly flowed around Gai. The taijutsu master expertly anticipated this and he sent a devastating donkey kick to Naruto chin. The boy grit his teeth as the blow met and his neck snapped upwards, blood sprayed from his mouth. He fell backwards like a tree and remained still,

Gai winced, "I might have overdone it, eh Kakashi," he walked forward and put his pointer and middle fingers on Naruto's neck to check for a pulse, he began to panic when he didn't find one so he put his ear over the boys mouth to see if he could feel the boy's breath, Kakashi too furrowed his eyebrows in worry and began to approach until Naruto's eyes snapped open and he wrapped his legs around Gai's neck. The big jounin reared back in shock and began to run in circles as Naruto began smashing his now chakra enhanced elbow down on the man's head. Gai ran head first into a tree but Naruto had scampered out of the way so the older man face planted into the tree. The elbows never stopped raining and blood began pouring from the man's head, his steps began to get uncertain, he swayed from one side to the other all the while Naruto relentlessly continued his assault, even adding in a few axe blows. Gai wobbled on his knees and his face turned purple when Naruto wrapped his elbow around the man's neck in a sturdy sleeper hold, his legs then summarily locked around his midsection, ever ready to unlock and move out of the way if Gai tried to slam him into a tree.

The boy knew, despite his hazy battle lust, that he couldn't dream of matching up to Gai in a straight up taijutsu fight, even if the man was going easy on him. Quite frankly it was suicidal to think that. His best bet was to play possum, adding to the effect by stopping his own heart for just a few seconds so that Gai would get even closer. He shook his arm, still around Gai's neck, and Gai responded by clawing at the boys forearms desperately, fighting for each breathe that just wasn't coming in any more. Gai instinctively knew that he wouldn't be able to open any gates for two reasons, the first was that the Hokage had specifically told him to go at high chunin strength and then even if he was to try entering the gates he wouldn't be able to; Naruto had somehow found out that if his mind was not focused on one thing he wouldn't be able to open even one gate, the strikes to his head had made him a scatter brain and the choke hold wasn't helping either.

The man drunkenly wobbled around again, he fell on a knee and Naruto violently shook his neck with his blood painted teeth grit in what could be described as ruthlessness. The shake pushed out more air out of Gai's lungs and his vision began to dim, there was a terrible burning sensation in his chest, he suddenly became incredibly thirsty and a full minute of struggling for breathe he fell on his other knee, using his weak arms to prop himself up and with another constrictor like shake of his arm the man fell face first into the ground. Naruto kept the hold on for about twenty more seconds before he cautiously released his grip from the unconscious man's neck. There trail of blood leaving his mouth, probably because of the jounin strength donkey kick he had received, that blow would have done him through if he had not followed the motion and exponentially reduced the force of the blow, it was all about the right timing. Naruto panted a little as he straightened up, idly dusting his stealth ninja uniform and spitting out some blood in a random direction. His eyes trailed to a very impressed Kakashi, who had been watching the taijutsu spar with interest,

"Nice trick," the copy ninja said, "not everyone can stop their heart, get a jump on Gai _and_ knock him out,"

Naruto shook his right elbow, the same one he wrapped around Gai's neck, and muffled a sigh of relief when blood returned to its original flow there, "it's an acquired talent,"

"So you say. I never said you couldn't use weapons or even jutsu,"

"You said the tests in an order and started with genjutsu, Gai-san was the one that came at me, a taijutsu master, instead of you, an all-round master. Hence, taijutsu test," both of them were now circling each other, gauging one another with critical eyes, Kakashi now knew that he couldn't take Naruto lightly; he really didn't want it getting out that he had succumbed to a sleeper hold, Asuma would never let him hear the end of it. Known to both shinobi there were shinobi filling up around the training ground to watch what they hoped was an old school beating, a few chunin had even pulled Gai away and were trying to revive him.

"That's very perceptive. Now's the last test, no restrictions, but don't worry kid, I'll go easy on you," he eye smiled jovially before he blurred at Naruto,

"That would be your mistake, Kakashi-san,"

Naruto rolled aside from a downward punch that almost even shattered the ground and jumped over a swing from a kunai that had slid into the copy ninja hand. The airborne boy snapped his right leg forward and Kakashi leaned away, the sandaled foot wafted in front of his face and even clipped a few silver hairs away from his forehead. The boy landed on one foot with his hands planted on the ground and flipped his body over, Kakashi crossed his arm to hold off the awkward looking stomp, throwing his arms out and pushing Naruto away. The boy flipped back to both of his feet and held up a fist full of senbon, with a sharp gesture they were thrown at his older opponent, he powered through a few hand seals, _"Multiple shadow senbon technique,"_ the jounin was forced to dive away from the barrage and run away from the dozens more that tried to pepper him with holes. He caught Naruto going through more hand seals, _"Shadow senbon rain technique,"_ he threw his hands to the sky, ten senbon flying high into the sky afterwards, Kakashi felt a foreboding feeling begin to churn in his gut and he was proven correct when a fluffy blue cloud started spitting out poison needle after poison needle.

The man yanked out two kunai and spun them in their rings to deflect each senbon expertly, he grunted in discomfort when he felt something stab clean through his side and out the other side, just before he exploded into smoke.

' _Shadow clone,'_ Naruto thought and his senses blared madly in his mind, he cancelled his former jutsu and jumped up just in time to prevent Kakashi from grabbing his feet. The copy ninja looked on as Naruto fired a senbon out of senbon launchers, the man crumbled to clumps of earth when they met. Naruto lightly landed on his feet; Kakashi was hiding again. He carefully looked around, making sure to spread out his senses, he then lifted his right leg when a dog tried to bite into his calf, he didn't even need to look before he fired a senbon to knock out the dog. His senses were telling him that Kakashi was sitting on a tree branch and he was proven right after he threw a barrage of shuriken there. The copy ninja dropped from the tree and rolled to Naruto, his own kunai held in a reverse grip. Both of them clashed, kunai on senbon, when they met in the middle; the older, stronger man pushed Naruto back and threw his weapon at the boy, the boy deflected the knife with his long needle but grunted when a fist was planted into his chest. The blow pushed him back but the copy ninja continued his onslaught; the drilling blows got faster and faster until Naruto's back met a tree. Kakashi pulled his hand back and let a devastating punch smash into Naruto's unprotected cheek, blood exploded out of the boy's mouth and his head lolled to the side. Kakashi stepped back to admire what he had done, fully expecting Naruto to at least fall on his knees but he was sorely disappointed; the boy was swaying on his feet, his hair shadowing his face ominously and his chest heaving in deep breathes.

The audience waited with bated breathes for Naruto to pass out but the boy chuckled lowly, blood and spit leaking from the sides of his mouth, "I've felt worse…from my clones…Dog-san," he spit defiantly at Kakashi, and a well-timed snap kick met his other cheek. He exploded into chakra smoke on contact.

"He switched when I kicked him, why didn't he switch when I was punching him?" his eye looked around lazily until his pointer and middle finger snapped up and caught a blow dart just before it met his nose, "blow darts? Really?" he snorted and just then the dart exploded into purple smoke; the masked ninja inhaled everything. The effect was immediate; the man's body locked up, making him stand and fall straight like a tree, and blood exploded out of his nose, his tightly clenched teeth and his ears. Naruto limped out of the forest, supporting his right ribs and rubbing his bruised cheek. He glared at Kakashi venomously, relishing in the blood that kept spurting out of his nose,

He knelt down beside the wide eyed man and whispered, "venom gotten from a 'Devils spinster spider' is basically useless, you can use it to bath and _nothing_ would happen to you, making most think that what is there isn't venom at all. What most don't know is that when you mix this venom with something as ordinary as water _before_ it is ingested it would create a cascade of problems to a person or even an animal," he poked the masked man's forehead, the man winced but couldn't unclamp his teeth to get any word out, "full body paralysis, your kidneys are shutting down and your lungs are collapsing, you are feeling an intense pain in your gut and in about sixty seconds you're going to drown in your own blood," Naruto nodded solemnly, "the pain you are in now…just flicking your ear would be like…like hitting your toes with a mallet," a sly, twisted smirk spread on Naruto's face after he said this, but he shook his head at the frantic pleas Kakashi was saying through his eye, "I thought all shinobi weren't meant to fear death," though he still jammed a needle filled with blue liquid into Kakashi's chest, the antidote spread through the man's body and he sighed in relief, "I'm not sure Hokage-sama would like it if I killed one of his most prized jounin," he leaned in close and whispered even more quietly, "yet…"

Kakashi sat up and began vomiting the blood from his lungs when he finally got feeling into his arms and legs. He was gulping in air desperately. Naruto watched all of this with an amused smile on his face,

"I take it I passed this test…?"

"Kami damn it, kid," Kakashi said after he spat out some blood, "what was that all about?"

"You said I shouldn't hold back, I didn't," Naruto got up once he felt his ribs were stable enough, already making plans to fix himself up in his lab,

"Report to Hokage-sama's office at noon tomorrow for your results,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto carefully sat down in front of the village leader inside the Kage's office; he pulled down his hoodie and reclined in his chair. Under his red hoodie he was wearing his pure black stealth ninja uniform.

Hiruzen Sarutobi scowled lightly and rubbed his face with his palm, "before I tell you you're results I _want_ to tell you the process we used to mark it, to show that we didn't change any scores or tamper with your results," the entire village may not like Konoha, Sarutobi wasn't above including himself, but the fact still remained that Naruto was treated as close to any other person in the village, jinchuriki status or not. This meant that his academy results were not changed, he wasn't chased out of the class for any outlandish reason and he was given the same treatment as any other student.

Naruto nodded and got a little more comfortable in his seat, "your test was marked by ten top grading ANBU operatives, then by Uzuki Yugao and finally by me. Your physical test was graded by Gai, Kakashi, Yugao, Shikaku Nara and also me,"

"Ok…so how did I do?" Naruto said as he again relaxed in his offered seat,

Here Sarutobi had to light a pipe and smoke it for a minute, to calm him down, he then reached to the lone file on his desk and flipped it open to the first page, "in your multiple choice questions you got ninety eight correct and that was only because you changed your mind twice,"

"Hai, ninja must always be decisive, there are no second chances in the field,"

Hiruzen nodded in agreement, "right. Your theory part was…it was simply…it was amazing. An average jounin wouldn't know who the progenitor of ninjutsu ( **not** ninshu) is, not to talk of even explaining how the human chakra network works,"

"I read a lot of things,"

"No matter, you got top marks there too. Can you tell me just where you get your information from?"

"The library,"

"You are a ninja of Konoha-"

"-And I shouldn't withhold information from my superior in rank. I have just told you where I got the information in your test; the library," pretty much everything the test asked could be found in the library if you dug deep enough,

"Fine…your physical aspect was astounding, Naruto," Hiruzen flipped to the last page and spread a few pictures on his desk of Naruto playing dead, putting Gai into a sleeper hold, poisoning Kakashi, giving Kakashi the antidote, whispering a few things to Kakashi, among many more things that happened that day, "despite the fact that you are less experienced in taijutsu than both jounin you were able to keep a level head, plan ahead and add in a little deception. I honestly didn't know gases could enter a blow dart," Naruto didn't answer, he chose to stare outside the window at the noon sun, "four of your examiners have said that you were jounin material,"

Naruto blinked and furrowed his eyebrows, "really?"

"Yes, really. You seem surprised,"

"I am, I would have at least thought they'd recommend me to be a chunin,"

"You were able to outsmart two of my best jounin, even though they were holding a lot back and the written test you took was the standard jounin exam; we just added fifty more questions. I have also thought of awarding you jounin as well-"

"Really?" Naruto asked in bewilderment, "from genin to jounin, that's a big jump. People will start asking questions,"

"That is why I have come up with an idea. Another few tests,"

Naruto stifled a groan and closed his eyes, "more tests…"

Hiruzen glared at the boy, "allow me to finish. I personally think you're ready for the promotion but others may think otherwise, so I will give a rank I call 'trail jounin' until your next tests are completed,"

"Trail jounin?"

"Yes, a jounin but under the rank of tokubetsu jounin, but higher than chunin commander," so that meant, technically speaking, that Naruto was already a jounin, trail jounin, until he was done with the tests.

"I'm not completely sure what you're saying, I can't handle a team and leadership is a core trait in a jounin right?"

"No, it isn't. Making critical, wise decisions under pressure is a core trait in a jounin,"

"…Ok…now why am I not given tokubetsu jounin?"

"Because you are going to perform three highly ranked missions to prove your worth, if you pass those I will award you with tokubetsu jounin, after that if you impress me enough and build up your mission quota then I'll consider promoting you to full jounin. You would not believe the headache your flash promotion is giving me,"

The Hokage had the option of not promoting Naruto at all, but the fact still remained that he would unbalance any team he would be placed in. If he was still on Kureanai's team he would beat her easily because genjutsu didn't affect him with his goggles on, he had shown the ability of outsmarting Kakashi and Gai, what says he wouldn't do it again? Making him a chunin would also be problematic; every chunin was placed in a team and all had shown that they could work with each other; it could not get any more obvious that Naruto was a lone wolf when it would have to come to missions. The boy had shown maturity far higher than one his age was supposed to have, this was a good thing but a bad thing because it would make him impatient and short tempered if his team mates, genin or chunin, didn't reach his level. Add in the fact that Naruto showed virtually _nothing_ based on his skills he couldn't have guessed on his own.

"Each mission is a solo mission," Naruto sighed in relief and rubbed under his eyes, "but since you're a trail jounin you will be _supervised_ by a squad of my best ANBU, they will not interfere unless your life is in danger,"

"Fine by me,"

The Sandaime then pulled a drawer open and pulled out an unmarked file from inside, he slid the file on his desk to Naruto and the boy sat up, caught the file and flicked it open, "your first mission is to travel to the edge of fire country and rescue the Fire daimyos six year old daughter from her kidnappers. Yesterday a band of bandits led by a single B rank ninja ambushed the girls travelling carriage on her way to Sunagakure to visit her pen pal, the Sand daimyos six year old daughter,"

Naruto hummed in thought, "weren't there fire guardians with her?"

"No,"

"Do you know why?" Hiruzen shrugged, "this exciting mission aside…are you sure the daimyo would approve you sending a twelve year old 'trail jounin' to rescue his only child,"

"What he doesn't know won't kill him. Besides, I'm sending an ANBU squad with you as back up; we already have a contingency plan if anything goes bad,"

"Has a ransom been sent?"

"Not yet, quite frankly I'm not sure the daimyo himself knows his daughter has been kidnapped,"

Naruto masterfully pieced together what the Hokage was saying, "his daughter was under our protection when she was kidnapped," Hiruzen hesitated before he nodded, "low ranked chunin to guard the fire lords own child? That's gonna get you in some hot shit," when the Sandaime was about to retort but Naruto quickly raised his hands for the older man to calm down, "hey, hey, hey that's just my opinion, I accept this mission,"

"Good, you leave right now,"

Naruto shrugged off his hoodie and slipped it into a back pack he wore under his hoodie. As he walked out of the front door of the Kage's tower he took off to the gate.

The bandits that had kidnapped the young member of the royal family had taken residence in a run-down pillow factory at the very edge of fire country. Naruto crouched inside a thick shrub, his goggles sticking out a little from the bush. He motioned his ANBU supervisors to get down,

"Two guards on the roof holding crossbows, fifty paces forward is the building but no cover," he muttered to himself,

"Need some help kid?" a tiger mask wearing whispered,

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around, then back to the two guards, "no, I've got an idea," Tenzo stepped back and watched as Naruto pulled out a senbon from his pocket and wrapped a one-way switch seal on it, the boy took a deep breathe and quick as a flash he threw the senbon accurately at a guard while at the same time he fired a senbon from its launcher; both needles nailed the guards on their foreheads, he crossed his forearms and muttered, _"Switch,"_ a small plume of smoke later and Naruto touched down on the roof, in his former location was the dead bandit.

"Impressive, it wasn't my idea but effective enough," Tenzo said and Cat signed for them to follow after him.

With Naruto, the boy allowed two long senbon to stick out of their launchers, reaching about six inches out of their silver launchers. He wasn't wearing his mask so he touched his goggles and it shone a faint orange, just as he dove head first into the roof door. He made sure to run at his stealth limit, high chunin; his senses as well as his eyes told him that the apparent leader was in the foreman's office while there were three guards situated in front of the door; the other bandits were guarding the back of the building in slow rotations. The thing about bandits was that they were either failed ninja or ninja wannabe civilians, they weren't this organised; the B rank ninja that led them must have been a good leader. The problem for the leader laid in the fact that he didn't have that many bandits to lead in the first place,

Naruto looked around the corner carefully and latched onto the ceiling, he quietly skittered behind the bandits and when they were about to look up he threw a kunai in a random direction. The weapon clanked on the wooden ground and the guards swarmed at it, Naruto though carefully levelled his launchers but refrained from using them; he opted to throwing three oozing needles and when they hit their necks' began to corrode. The rundown pillow factory had been abandoned about ten years ago for reasons he didn't wish to find out and it was located in a thick forest, this meant that light didn't really go in. He carefully pushed open the door to the office and skittered inside, barely even making a sound.

He spied the six year old quivering royalty staring at him with wide, unblinking eyes while the apparent leader was relieving himself in the bathroom. He slowly put his fingers on his lips, telling her to keep quiet and he sighed lightly in relief when she frantically nodded while putting her hands over her mouth. He also told her to close her eyes by putting both of his hands over eyes, a moment of indecision reached her when she remembered that her hands were over her mouth but it was solved when she strongly pursed her lips and covered her eyes with her hands. Naruto steeled his eyes and hung over the bathroom door,

Idle whistling escaped as the man left the bathroom, the man paused at the door when he saw the six year old, still shaking in fear, with her hands over her eyes and her mouth pursed tightly, "what're you doin' kid?" he said in a gruff voice but the girl frantically shook her head, "I can sense you too, whoever you are,"

"No use hiding then," Naruto dropped from the ceiling on the man but he was abruptly grabbed by his throat, on contact he burst into smoke, in his place was a single explosive seal tag that latched strongly on the man's arm. It exploded half a second later but instead of fire what came out was green, lethal smoke; the man inhaled it all. Naruto, wearing a gas mask under his goggle protected eyes, gently fixed another smaller gas mask onto the girls face. The girl was looking up at him with bright stars sparkling in her eyes, masterfully ignoring the violent hacking coughs her captor was making. Naruto beamed at her,

"Are you ok?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, "a-are you my knight in shining armour?" her voice had an adorably childish squeakiness to it,

Naruto raised an amused eyebrow, turning his head so he could watch as the B rank ninja stumbled around the office, blood spurting out of his nose, ears, mouth and eyes, "…in a way…"

"Yay!" the celebration was muffled by her gas mask; she immediately hugged Naruto's midsection; he hurriedly refrained from violently reacting to the contact, he never liked being touched without his permission…

The blonde boy patted her head, "get on my back and hold on tight," he could just feel the amusement his ANBU supervisors were looking at him with. The girl buried her head into his neck, again not looking at the bloody sight of her captor. The man he had poisoned was now slumping off a wall; his breathing was shallow and irregular. As Naruto left the room he looked back for one brief moment, his poison had worked like a charm; it was not spider poison he used rather it was a cross between herbicide and centipede poison, making the combination immediately explode into gas once combined. Naruto had sucked the gas into a storage scroll once that happened. It was similar to what he had done to Kakashi in the sense that the dart he threw had a thin wire that separated the mixtures inside until it finally burnt through when Kakashi jolted it as he caught it. Though in this case the mixtures were unsealed simultaneously in their liquid forms and due to this they combined, the larger either of the liquids were the more toxic.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Your next mission is to capture Eritajijo, a rogue Konoha ninja who had been sending information to Grass country, I don't know to who or even why,"

"How was he caught?" Naruto asked as he skimmed the file,

"We managed to decipher a coded message that was sent to him by an unknown person from Grass, we found it on his desk,"

"To clarify, he's an average chunin that used to work as your secretary,"

"Correct,"

"How long do you suspect he has been a spy?"

"Not too long, he hasn't left the village in years but the one time he left for a mission he begins acting suspiciously,"

"This was…two days ago, when I was taking my tests,"

"Yes, I don't think he has sent anything of value yet but we have to get him to confirm,"

"He should be alive, not unwounded, am I correct?"

"He should at least be able to speak coherently; I don't care if you cut his arms off, just leave his mind intact,"

Naruto snapped the file closed, "I accept,"

"Good, my trackers say he's running through the desert to Sunagakure, if you run fast enough you'll catch up,"

Eritajijo didn't seem too happy it was a twelve year old Konoha had sent to retrieve him. Naruto didn't need to be stealthy so he ran at his fastest, mid to high jounins speed, to catch up with the chunin missing ninja that had wanted to seek sanctuary in Sunagakure; that wasn't the smartest of ideas because with Suna allied to Konoha, missing ninja from either village couldn't seek sanctuary in the other and if so they were obligated to hand these nuke nin to their villages.

Naruto had a camo red scarf wrapped around his mouth and nose to prevent harsh sand from entering his lungs. Eritajijo looked incredibly tired; he was running blindly through a sand storm with the crook of his elbow covering his nose for protection. To pass by the man Naruto applied a burst of chakra to his legs; the sand storm subsided a little, allowing the chunin to open his eyes and look at Naruto. A visible twitch came to his eyebrows,

"Pardon me but this is a formality; Eritajijo, by order of the Hokage you are to return to Konoha and face punishment for your crimes. Come peacefully or I will have no option but to use force," Naruto droned like he was reading from a book,

"They sent a kid!? And it's the Kyuubi brat too!"

"Are you coming peacefully or not?" the answer was obvious but he wanted Eritajijo to say it himself,

"Hell no, I'd rather cut you up into little pieces and feed you to the desert snakes,"

Naruto hummed and secured his scarf a little tighter around his nose, two forearm long senbon slide out of his launchers and locked in place. The boy positioned one arm pointing down, the long senbon was touching the sand and the other was arched over his head like a pincer,

"At least give me a challenge," the chunin snorted as he ran at Naruto and sent over a brutal upper cut. Naruto leaned away from the blow, his legs firmly locked in place, and the long senbon that was pointing to the sand slashed upwards at the man's flak jacket protected stomach, creating a thin, bubbling path through it. The chunin missing ninja pushed away from the brutal blow but this allowed Naruto to bring down the overhead pincer on his opponent, carving a bubbling line through his chunin flak jacket diagonally, and passing through his first stomach slash. Eritajijo hissed in pain and swung his leg in a roundhouse kick but Naruto used both of his long senbon to block the blow, grabbing the offending leg and twisting it harshly. The result was the leg snapping with a spine tingling crack; he refused to let go of the leg, bringing the older man down face first into the ground and poking his long senbon into his opponent's neck. Eritajijo struggled on the ground for a minute before he abruptly fell asleep,

"That was much easier than I thought," Naruto murmured and hefted the unconscious ninja onto his shoulder, beginning his return run back to Konoha,

"He underestimated you, Naruto," Yugao said as his ANBU supervisors joined him, possibly out of nowhere,

"It was his mistake," Mantis said from Naruto's right, "its every ninjas' mistake to underestimate his opponent,"

"Hai, but you did a great job, you didn't even move your feet," Tiger said, "what did you call that style again,"

"Four legged spider style," Naruto puffed out,

"Why only four legs, spiders have eight," Yugao asked,

"It's a work in progress,"

The shadow legged spider style was an invention of Naruto he had gotten when he had observed a 'Swamp rat spider' hunt a rat he had let into his enclosure like container. His style made use of obvious attacks and defences but well hidden counter-attacks. It made primary use of extra-long senbon coming from his launchers but when he had to face off against Mizuki he used his pointer and middle finger to replace them. So far though his most powerful form was the four legged shadow spider; standing with his feet shoulder length apart and bending down at the ready, his right arm hooking over his head and pointing to his opponent like a pincer while his left pointed down to the ground, serving as his defence-counter strike arm or 'leg'. The style emphasizes staying on the ground unless it couldn't be helped and raw, deceptive power with a vast knowledge of poisons. Plans on how to manifest more 'legs' for his taijutsu style were already underway; he just needed a few more confirmation tests.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"How did I do?"

"Stellar performance, Cat reported that you didn't waste any movement or do any 'flashy' jutsu," Hiruzen admitted as he organised his desk, ready to call it a night. Naruto had made a new record for himself by completing two A rank missions in two days. The boy had stopped by his office just after he dropped Eritajijo with the T&I department,

"No jutsu was needed in the mission,"

"That fact notwithstanding you should be proud of what you have done. Your supervisors speak highly of you; Shikaku even wants you to enter the ANBU,"

Naruto shook his head, "I would prefer it if I was a regular jounin, I still have a lot to learn,"

The Hokage pursed his lips but nodded, "here is pay for both missions," he handed Naruto a sealed scroll filled with his payment, "before I forget…my advisors have seen promise in you, one of them wishes to personally train you,"

"I believe I reached where I am without much help, with all due respect I'll be fine on my own,"

"My student, Jiraiya, also wants to train you. He wants you to be his apprentice; he will give you the toad signing contract as well as teach you how to use the Kyuubi's chakra,"

"Is this the same student that writes porn and peeps on women in his free time?"

A large sweat drop formed on Hiruzen's forehead, "I see your point. So that's a no, even to the toad summoning contract," Naruto nodded, "since your declining I might as well tell you that he is your godfather,"

"So the legendary toad sage is my godfather, I have to say he's doing a horrible job at it,"

"He gave you those goggles didn't he…?"

"No, my godmother did,"

Hiruzen paled and he gaped, "Orochimara?"

"Hai, she's actually really good with seals,"

"Have you…spoken with her before?"

"No,"

"Good, you have to stay away from her; she's nothing but trouble,"

"I'm now legally an adult, Hokage-sama; with all due respect I can make my own decisions,"

The old Hokage clenched his fists on his desk and glared at the young boy, "I'm ordering you as your Hokage,"

"You're ordering me not to associate with my own godmother but you want me to associate with my godfather, whom you both trained. Can I ask why?"

"Orochimara is nothing but trouble; the heinous experiments she committed have soiled her name in this village,"

"She loved my father like her own brother,"

"Minato was a man with the largest heart in the world, he saw the good in everything and everyone, she manipulated him for most of his life but Jiriaya saved him from further manipulation,"

Naruto nodded slowly and refrained from rolling his eyes, he didn't believe one word the Sandaime was saying, "The fact remains; I'm not training under your advisor or Jiraiya. If I was still a genin I wouldn't have an option but since I'm not…"

"Fine, how are you going to train with the Kyuubi's chakra?"

"I have my ways," Naruto replied shortly, "now about my last mission…"

"Your last mission will be the one of the most importance; we have found out that there is an underground slave trade empire in fire country," he handed Naruto a slightly heavy file, stocked filled with pictures of slaves an unidentified informant had discreetly taken, Naruto read through it carefully,

"Do you know the identity of this informant?"

"Of course I do, he is a 'rouge' Inuzuka named Ringo,"

"So his status as a missing ninja is a cover to get into this empire,"

"Yes, he has reported that he is now a driver in this slave trade empire,"

"For how long…?"

"A year now, but I was only made aware of this last week. The empire has been operating in the shadows and we only found out because we found a tag the back of a girls hand; it's in your mission specs,"

Naruto looked at the tag that was apparently given to every slave in the slave ring; it was a square with a needle and a chain passing through it. Naruto suspected that a tracking seal was administered under the seal, the file he read told him that submission of the slaves was done the old fashioned way; by whipping, torturing and defiling them. It might have not been savoury for most to look at but Naruto was not considered most people. He didn't support unnecessary confrontation or violence but he did support doing things for an end, and what the salve masters were doing was mostly for profit. The file included a detailed diagram of the complex the slaves were housed as well as the underground network they were transported through, the location of every black market that bought these slaves, either their body parts or their whole bodies, with an added list of their main buyers. Two prominent names stuck out; Gato from Gato Shipping Company, the owner and controller of the elemental nation's third top transport company and number one water transport company. Naruto didn't need to be told that the short, fat man didn't _**only**_ transport food and clothing from one place to another, a man of his stature must have started off with peddling drugs. Naruto was a hundred per cent sure that one of his many smuggling contacts currently outside of Konoha made use of the Gato shipping company, or any of the other shipping companies, to bring an exotic animal close to Konoha's borders, where it was picked up by a contact inside Konoha that posed as a food or even textile merchant. The animals were heavily sedated so they wouldn't move around the cart to draw ANBU attention. The merchants he used were well known and well respected members of the public; it was funny to think that even the Hokage wasn't aware of the depth corruption that was buried in Konoha.

The second name that stuck out was Kitsugami Gumo from Kitsugami Drug Company. A drug company that had only surfaced two years ago but was already paving the path towards becoming an empire. Barely anything was known about Kitsugami himself except that he always wore a wide brimmed hat and pinstriped suit. A vague picture was taken of him shaking hands with a popular crime lord named Torune Abumi. It was in a dimly lit restaurant where it was most likely passed midnight. The file said that Kitsugami surfaced the same day his business did but so far a clear picture of him was never taken and his movements were never truly confirmed. Naruto smirked to himself when he saw another picture of Kitsugami Gumo; the man was sitting in the top stands of an underground wrestling ring, whispering something into the ear of a fat man that sat beside him; the man was in the middle of laughing wholeheartedly at what Kitsugami had said. The next picture was of all the rich delegations watching the wrestling, laughing at the joke Kitsugami had said. The information on Kitsugami was so thin; they were in the dark on how rich he was, how he got his drugs, who was under his employ and so many other things. Quite frankly the fact that his name was even on the list was subject to question. The last confirmed picture was when Kitsugami was entering a butchers shop; this was the vaguest of all the pictures, seeing as it was very grainy and brown scaled. The picture had the man looking at the camera man from the corner of his eyes; his coal black pupils only glinted slightly, knowingly. Naruto would have to be sure he was more careful next time…

"So you want me to tear it down…can I ask why I'm not given a team?"

"You have admitted with your own mouth that you cannot lead, so you are going to have to make do with your clones if you want,"

"But my supervisors will still be coming with me?" Naruto said with a faint mocking undertone in his voice,

"Yes, merely to look over it all,"

"I've got a good grasp of this mission but I have to ask…what is my specific objective in this mission?"

"I want the leader of this slavery ring contained and every other underling there dead if it can't be helped. The…victims…safety should be your top priority,"

"So I somehow have to gain entrance into this place, bring it down and escape with the leader and about…" he skimmed his file with his lips pursed, "four hundred and sixty three slaves and four heavily pregnant teenagers. A structure protected by many highly ranked missing shinobi. Am I missing anything?"

"No, that's pretty much it," Sarutobi said with a sharp smirk,

"So basically you're sending me on a suicide mission," Naruto said as he leaned back in his chair with his right leg crossed on his left knee, he was still idly reading the mission folder, "without any backup and with conditions that might very well kill me under the effort,"

"Pretty much, yes. Do you accept?"

Naruto hesitated, ways he could break into the slavery ring running through his mind and those ones came easily but how to break out with all those lives he was apparently responsible for…

It wouldn't be easy, not by a long shot, but nothing ever stopped him.

Nothing.

"I accept," the boy knew what the Hokage was getting at; so far he hadn't shown all that much skill-wise, so this almost impossible mission would force more of his secrets out into the light, and when it got too much for him his supervisors would tactfully step in and take over the mission. _'You sneaky_ _ **old**_ _ **fart**_ _,'_ He matched the old Hokage's smirk with his own and stood up, "is there a time limit?"

"Oh no, take your time," Sarutobi waved, "just get the job done, _lives_ are on the line,"

"You are gambling the lives of people…just so you can know what I know, so you can know what I can do," Naruto stated with a twisted smirk, he began walking out of the office,

"I hate secrets, especially when it comes to you, child,"

Naruto paused and said over his shoulder, "you might not like what I know, old man, and I _will_ succeed in this mission, just wait and see," he marched out of the office,

"Oh we'll see…we'll see…" the Sandaime muttered,

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The budding child scientist sped out of the gates at high speed, his supervisors unfailingly falling behind him, now made up of three platoons' of ANBU operatives, watching his every move. Naruto looked over his shoulder and sent a two fingered salute to his superiors, he then leaped into a tree and began tree hopping to where his mission specs had said the slave ring was located.

The slave ring had taken the underground fact quite literally; there was a single opening in a mountain guarded by half a dozen burly Waterfall missing ninja, probably B rank. He covered his goggles so the guards wouldn't see them tint orange then back to black, he couldn't suppress the small glow for now. His night vision allowed him to see how the front gate was set up; it was a humbly built out of solid stone and wood, with decorative iron support pillars at sides. There were two main gates, one that allowed people in and one that allowed people, and by people he meant the slavers that carted new slaves that were fully restrained and contained in large vehicles that, after zooming in on one, were powered by a few unhealthy looking male slaves turning a pedal-like rotor so the apparent driver could give the vehicle a direction. His vision only allowed him to see different shades of green so he couldn't note the colours but what he was able to see was enough for him. Sadly though, since there was no other light on in the twin gates, all the guards were wearing night vision goggles too.

He pursed his lips tightly and counted the guards manning the two main gates; fourteen guards, seven in each and most were probably sensors, this was proved when one of the shinobi manning the 'in' gate placed his hand on a vehicle and waved for it to continue inside. It was a good thing that touch sensors or even full sensors were relatively rare in the elemental nations and that those that were patient enough to train to get this ability were even rarer. So far there were four touch sensors, three in the 'in' gate and one in the other and none of them had touched the ground; probably not for long though.

The map in his mission specs said that passed the gates was an opening in a mountain where the vehicle would travel downwards to an underground network where the slaves can be distributed to black markets, the security inside was top quality but there was no fuinjutsu he should have to worry about. As another large vehicle rumbled towards the gate he got an idea on how he would be able to get in.

"Naruto-san?" he heard a soft whisper behind him but he didn't turn to acknowledge the person, he just turned his head a little to the side and hummed,

"Yes?" his plan wasn't dependant on the time but he would rather get the mission over with; he could basically feel the pity the platoons' of ANBU had for him as they hid in the shadows, ready for any action. It was Yugao, the cat mask wearing captain that had whispered for his attention, making Naruto realize that he had been observing the gate for thirty minutes. The ANBU captain slipped to his side stealthily and looked at him through her mask coolly,

"Your mother, Kushina Uzumaki, was my sensei, my senpai and my captain,"

Naruto still hadn't turned to look at her; there was a slight downward twitch in the side of his lips, "what are you trying to tell me, Yugao-san?"

"I'm saying that I'm rooting for you,"

"Much appreciated," Naruto didn't need luck, he needed everything in his repertoire, he was merely humouring the purple haired woman,

He also didn't need the pity the ANBU were giving him, but he shrugged them off. Most expected him to create an army of clones and bum rush the base but he surprised them by creating only one. He handed the clone a thick roll of paper and said,

"You know the plan?"

"Hai, boss," the clone whispered and ran head first towards the gates.

The alarm sirens blared as the guards caught sight of the clone.

There was a major security flaw that the Konoha missing ninja had unknowingly written in the mission specs. The leader of the slave ring believed that all the security he ever needed was meant for the only gates to the base, so if there was ever to be an attempt to break in more than ninety seven per cent of the shinobi were to focus on containing the breach, leaving the leader to be guarded by his top guard, a female sixteen year old samurai simply called Aoki-chan. A bit of overkill but it was Naruto's gap, and he took this gap like a pro. The gates and the entrance to the slave ring was sealed shut with steel gates as thick as Naruto's arms.

Naruto's clone made sure to change the direction he was running at to the forest to his far right, where he guessed a waterfall was located. The shinobi and konouchi under this mysterious leader poured after him relentlessly, armed with ever possible weapon imaginable. It was like watching a man trying to outrun a tsunami, except this man was using his flexibility to dodge any attempt to grab him until he and his chasers were far into the forest. This was what happened if you leave security in the hands of a cocky, overconfident and proud civilian.

The clone quickly stopped when he reached a small cliff and jumped over the edge, the shinobi followed after him. He stopped his run to the waterfall when he saw shinobi standing there, he looked back and more shinobi behind him; the ninja began to surround him and slowly move in, the weapons at the ready to either subdue him or cut him to pieces. They readied their weapons though when the clone unsealed two small pills; one green the other one brown. He tossed both into his mouth and bit down strongly. Toxic green chakra strings exploded out of his pores and any attempt at cutting them failed since they were sticky to the touch. The strings wrapped around the ninja and drew them to the clone, who brought out the roll of paper he had initially unsealed the pills from. As the ninja were about two feet from him he channelled chakra into the roll.

A giant plume of green smoke covered all.

Visible, thick veins began etching on the now free shinobi, seeing as the clone had un-summoned itself, and white foam dribbled out of their mouth. They held their throats and hacked, then a switch went off in their heads, like an almighty switch that only kami had the authority to touch, and they snapped upright as one and blood burst from their ears and noses like geysers. They died not more than a second later. The ANBU shinobi that watched over this happening couldn't help but be a little impressed at what Naruto's clone had done without question or hesitation. The plan was to take the shinobi force in the slave ring as far away as possible from their base and kill them all at once with a poison mixture that had been locked into an explosive tag seal matrix, which was now referred to as 'explosive poison'. It didn't leave any survivors since he had used more than a dozen rolls of the explosive poison.

The original Naruto took this massive gap to blur to the gate, he wasted no time to whip out a purple liquid oozing senbon and cut it through the metal grates blocking the entrance to the slave ring; even though it required him used five senbon he succeeded in hacking through. Behind the grated metal wall was a wide tunnel where the vehicles lugged people to and from the very centre. This was the time he created dozens of clones to his side,

"Find the people and guide them here, I'll handle the leader,"

"Hai, boss!" the clones said as one, even throwing in sharp salutes before they disappeared to the central location of the slave ring.

Long senbon sharply came out of Naruto's launchers and clicked in place, the boy ran with high jounin speed through the darkness and when he sensed light he deactivated his night vision, choosing to switch to seeing chakra networks. The main slavery ring was a place where hundreds of cages were stored, filled with people that huddled together for warmth. Naruto spied his clones coaxing them out of their cages and following after a few other clones that were marching to the exit. The original Naruto ran above the cages on a thick electrical wire that supplied electricity to the leader's office, the passage way the large vehicles used to transport slaves and the gates. Naruto stopped on the floor the leaders office was. The door opened and out stepped a woman in a red and white school girl style mini-skirt that had a penguin tail that reached the back of her knees, showing off sleek legs that were tucked into white knee-high socks and equally white trainers. She also had on a white school girl's button up shirt that was tied at her mid-riff, exposing her chiselled and well-tanned abdomen. The woman had short shoulder length black hair and a lollipop in her mouth; in her right hand she held a black sheath with a peculiar looking katana inside. The handle was red and white with wind designs over it.

Aoki-chan used her free hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and eyed Naruto, her amusement was almost palpable, "you lost, little boy?" she cooed and puckered her ruby red lips which still happily sucked on her lollipop. Naruto didn't answer her; he got into his four legged spider position and lowered his centre of gravity a little, "what's wrong, cat got your tongue? Don't worry, this same reaction happens with the help,"

"This can go in either way; you allow me to get your leader and take him back to my village or I go through you and do it anyway,"

The teen gave a short laugh, "bigger men, and women, have tried, none have succeeded,"

"You haven't fought me before," Naruto replied,

"Your too cute, makes me wanna pinch your cute little cheeks," she cooed again to get a rise out of the boy but the boy merely blinked,

"Just standing here I have come up with a seven ways to defeat you,"

"I like your confidence, kid, but it won't help you," she flicked her black sheath off her sword to reveal the glinting silver blade,

"If you knew me, Aoki- _san_ , you'd know that I don't like failing, so I don't fail,"

It was Naruto that charged first. He ran at the girl with his pincer-senbon clattering on the ground before he used his right hand to stab at her, she clanged her blade against his super long needle effortlessly and brought up her knee to jam into Naruto's stomach, the boy allowed the blow to connect and used the contact to attempt to slice her leg with his other pincer. It failed; she pulled her leg away and sent a spinning kick at the boy. Naruto raised both of his forearms to block and sent a kick of his own, though he quickly pulled his leg away and sent his other, perfectly feinted by his first leg. She raised her shin to block his leg and pushed the boy away using her katana, running back at him. The fight was filled with bright sparks, it unknowingly led them both far away from the office and off the edge; they fell onto a cage and continued their kenjutsu fight. Naruto was barely even able to defend her precise and sometimes even lax attacks, so he chose not to fight her in her comfort zone anymore; he jumped back twice on the massive cage and when he landed he flipped through a few hand seals,

" _Water release: Twisted serpents,"_ he spat out a long, deep blue column of water at the woman, the jutsu spun within itself to form multiple snakes with drill like mouths. The snakes dropped from Naruto's mouth and slithered to her, the teenage girl slashed a section off the iron cage and hurled it at Naruto, the boy shot two senbon at the large projectile and the ninja wire with spider chemical properties stuck to it solidly, the boy spun around and hurled it back at her. The woman slashed the returned iron projectile apart and leaped over the snakes, dashing to Naruto. The boy ran at her and made a crucial decision as he did so.

Aoki's katana cut clean through his stomach and exited his back, blood dribbled out of his nose slowly and he began to slowly slump against her. She ruffled his hair, still effortlessly holding him up in the air, and said, "you won't get a next time to get better, kid," the teenage girl might have been young for her age but she was already a respected samurai in her own right, this respect though was wiped off by her fellow samurai in iron country when she had gone rogue, after killing the Iron country leader's brother in a dual to the death. Naruto was high chunin at best when he used his pincers to fight.

"Don't need one," Naruto said lowly, in a hushed voice. A twisted smile slowly spread on his face, still lowered and blocked by his hair,

"What'cha say?" the sixteen year old girl said and leaned in a little,

"I said…" Naruto began, his smile now a full blown grin, there was a low rumble in his chest, _"poisonous smog,"_ his head snapped up and he breathed out a plume of smoke over her and him,

The girl pulled away abruptly, unsheathing her katana from inside Naruto, and unconsciously took in a gulp of toxic air into her system, "you little…" she began as her lungs began shutting down and her heart beat began to slow down, her katana clattered on the ground, "you…tricked…me…" the plume of gas was still shrouding them,

"I've been known to do that, yes," Naruto said as he swallowed a pill that reduced the pain her legendary sword had put him in, "and I also told you I don't fail," the teen was now trying, and failing, to muster up the energy to move forward but her whole body remained unresponsive, she then fell forward, "I specially made this poison mix when I want to take home a prisoner back home alive," she was flat on her face and fading fast until Naruto pricked her cheek with his foot, a small senbon stuck out of the toe briefly before it slid back in, "you should be happy you have gotten my interest, quite frankly no one else has done that. You will make a great bodyguard,"

"I…will…never…" she said in a weak voice, now the pain she was in was like she was being strangled, no air was getting into her lungs but air was leaving with each desperate pant,

"Your honour demands it,"

"My _**honour**_ …died the day I killed… _ **Nifune**_ ,"

"Then we can settle on you dying on the floor like a common street thug while I walk past you and capture your leader," a smaller puff of smoke within the thick plume of smoke came and another Naruto ran to the leaders office, "scratch that, my clone can retrieve him while I watch you die here like a dog,"

The thick smoke was settling and Naruto took his time to sit on the ground with his legs crossed, watching her with rapt interest, even removing a notepad from his back pack and writing down whatever he saw her trying to do. He poked her head with his pen and she stirred up a little, her eyes hooded and tired, she whined quietly and whispered, "I don't wanna die…"

"Then you agree to come and work for me?" he could sense the more inquisitive black ops members moving towards the smoke that had obscured their vision, "I'll even pay you if that's what you want, your skills with your blade are very impressive,"

"Money later…I want to live," she said breathily,

He smirked at her reply, "you have your priorities straight, good," he pricked her neck again but this time with a syringe filled with a multi-coloured liquid. She sighed in relief as her lungs allowed passage of air through but the thick smoke around them prevented her from being fully healed, or even allowing her to move her body. He sealed her and her sword into a storage seal before he unsealed a few white bones and scattered them on the ground. "Take cover!" he dropped a low powered explosive tag and leaped out of the smoke. The explosion wasn't large but it shook the foundations of the ground.

The blonde scientist didn't acknowledge the other ANBU operatives that were staring at him in shock; he merely dusted off his stealth uniform and marched off to where his clones were keeping the freed slaves contained.

His mission was complete, now he had other things to worry about.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _A month later_

Ubari Mioto shakily slid the keys to his door into the lock and with a sloppy turn of his wrist he unlocked the door, he shouldered it open and the first smell that hit him was the gentle aroma of freshly baked cinnamon buns. His stomach rumbled hungrily, which wasn't a surprised since he had only been drinking through the night. In his drunken daze he didn't even remember that it was unusual for a person to bake well past midnight, or that his family was not meant to be back from their holiday in Tea country.

He followed his nose and licked his lips, pushing aside the single curtain that served as the door to the dining area. The place was bathed in darkness besides the head of the table where he saw a pair of hands idly tap the table, a ruby red ring on the persons left pinkie and a sky blue ring on his right middle finger, the lamp on the dining table illuminated the persons hands, his chin, his purple pinstripe suit and showed that he had a wide brimmed black hat on his head that cast a long shadow down to his mouth. Mioto sniffed a little and squinted to get a better look at this person until the door to the kitchen was pushed open and a black haired woman entered with a pan filled with cinnamon buns in her hand. Aoki-chan was now clad in a more modest long sleeved flowing white kimono that was cut at her calves to show long red stockings, a crimson red sash around her waist and tight black shorts, her katana was leaning on the table besides the suit wearing man. The sixteen year old A rank female samurai smiled gently at the man and placed the baked rolls in front of him,

"Thank you, Aoki-chan,"

"My pleasure, Kitsugami-sama," the woman bowed and retrieved her katana, holding it in her iron grasp as she stood at attention behind the man that was apparently named Kitsugami, holding the handle of the lethally sharp blade in her right and ready to draw at a moment's notice,

Mioto swayed on his feet drunkenly and leaned on the wall, "who you?" he slurred,

The mysterious man reached forward and took a roll, making sure to deeply inhale its luscious scent before taking a small bite of it with his white serrated teeth.

"Take a seat, Mioto-san," he offered and when the man remained defiant he made a small gesture over his shoulder to Aoki-chan, the girl marched over to the man and shoved the man into a chair, "give him some of you _wonderful_ rolls too, Aoki-chan," his voice had a deep maturity to it that was very intimidating mostly to those that weren't aware of who he was,

"Yes sir, thank you sir," the girl said bowing deeply in appreciation and rushing off to the kitchen to give the man some of her baked rolls. She gently dropped a plate in front of him,

"Your too kind, I'm starved," the man said as he basically inhaled the scorching hot rolls without even having the decency to blow on them, Aoki-chan though remained by his side with her hand gripping the handle of her katana,

Kitsugami grunted and tapped his fingers on the table to shake some sugar particles off, he had already eaten two and he was ready to begin, "do you remember who I am, Mioto-san?"

The man grumbled as he jammed a roll into his mouth, "I don't know…the mail man…?" he joked,

Kitsugami apparently didn't find the humour in what he said, "I'm the guy you owe half a million ryu to," Kitsugami said sharply as he slammed his hands on the table,

This seemed to snap the man out of his semi-drunken daze; the colour drained from his face and he attempted to leap out of his seat but Aoki-chan grabbed his shoulder with her right hand and pushed back into his seat firmly, displaying strength that clearly didn't show on her body,

"I swear, Kitsugami-sama, I'll-I'll have your money in a week-"

"That's what you told me last week, and the week before that, and the week before that…"

"I swear I can get the money this time…" the man blubbered, "I-I-I just need more time,"

"Do you think I'm a fool, Mioto-san," the man said as he bit into a cinnamon roll, he snapped his fingers and the girl rushed back into the kitchen and brought a cup of pineapple juice back with her, "thank you," he took a small sip and dropped the cup back on the table, Aoki-chan bowed again and returned to Mioto's side, "can you tell me, Mioto-san, the secret behind a successful business?" The man shook under Aoki-chan's harsh glare and shook his head, "I run a multi-million ryu drug company, inching towards being a multi- _billion_ ryu drug _empire_ , and I have customers all over the elemental nations, from Rock country to Frigid country, from Lightning country to Tea country. From shady dealers to legal buyers. And this was _after_ I began wide spread supplying two years ago; do you want to know how I got so high up there so quick?" the formerly drunken man lowered his head and nodded, "my products are all top quality, I have friends and connections in konoha's criminal underworld, I give incentive to regular customers that buy from me and lastly," he brought his clenched fist down on the table again, "I always close my deals. We," he motioned to himself and at Mioto, "made a deal but you continually _**refuse**_ to close it," he motioned for Aoki-chan and she stuck her katana sheath into her red sash, she then unsealed a thick book from her wrist,

"You purchased six hundred pounds of Indian hemp from boss and agreed that you would pay it all…a month ago," she said in a soft, hypnotic voice. She snapped the book closed and sealed it back into her wrist, glaring daggers at Mioto when he didn't answer, rather closing his eyes and staring at his cold cinnamon rolls,

"Well? Why haven't I gotten my money?" Kitsugami demanded, "You are the only person that owes me money this month and I _hate_ that," here Aoki-chan bared her teeth in a feral grin, the man winced and tried to inch away from her but she shoved him back into his seat,

"I…I just ran into a rough patch recently-"

"Do you love your family, Mioto-san?" Kitsugami asked as he impatiently tapped the table,

Mioto's head snapped up and he looked horrified, "more than anything,"

"I hear Tea country's mountain lodges are good this year…" the millionaire man trailed off ominously, it was obvious this rich man knew where Mioto's family was having their vacation,

"You leave my family alone!" the man snarled and stood up abruptly but he was again shoved down by Aoki-chan, the girl snorted and shook her head,

"Are you presuming…" Kitsugami said as he stood up smoothly, walking to the man on the opposite side of the table, "you can make any _**demands**_ ," he put both of his hands on Mioto's shoulders, "to _**me**_ ,"

The man lowered his head again, "I...I'm sorry,"

"Ha, you're not sorry, not yet," he stabbed a needle into Mioto's shoulder and injected a thick, green liquid into the man's system. Kitsugami used both of his hands to clamp Mioto's mouth shut when it opened to scream in pain. There was no visible sign that he was in turmoil but inside him his organs were cooking in the heat, before it subsided two minutes after it started, "I cooked this up myself. Venom from a desert duster mixed carefully with venom from a devils spinster and left in the cool, night air for a whole night. I call it my chill pill," he chuckled at his own small joke,

Mioto was sweating buckets after the poison had briefly subsided, the needle was still jammed into his shoulder and when he attempted to take it out he was viciously slapped across the face by Aoki-chan; he whimpered and small drops of tears fell from his eyes.

"I really want to kill you, Mioto-san, but I also really want my money," he pushed a little of the venom into the man and watched in twisted satisfaction as a muffled scream blasted out of Mioto's lungs, "I need a date Mioto-san, give me a date,"

"Pl-please-"

The suit wearing man squeezed some more venom in, "that's not what I want to hear," the hair on the Mioto's head began to fall off in small clumps,

"Th-th-three days," Mioto said with a shaky, weak voice, "ple-please gimme thre-three days,"

"And if I you don't give me my money then…?"

"Kill me…but please…leave my family out of this,"

"I've got a _better_ idea; if you fail me I'll just use your family as my new test subjects. It's a win-win for me, don't you think, Aoki-chan?"

The girl grinned and bowed her head, "Hai, Kitsugami-sama,"

"Three days," Kitsugami said with finality and left through the front door with Aoki-chan protectively flanking him from behind.

As he and his bodyguard stepped into a shadowy alleyway he took off his wide brimmed hat and ran his fingers through his blonde hair.

His Henge'd black eyes glowed at Aoki-chan, "wasn't that fun, Aoki-chan?"

The girl genuinely nodded, "Hai, it was, Naruto-sama,"

There were a lot of things that could happen in eight years if the first two years were ignored by authorities. Starting up operations that Ashitori Roshimaru had stopped was very easy, painfully easy and this time the quality of his products also increased. With the increase in customers there was an increase in contacts, and with that came an increase in profit that was fully given back to Naruto in crisp notes sealed into small squares of paper stashed into briefcases he was storing in a room in his warehouse. The boy had gone from passing samples of his products under the table to the drug lords he was gambling with to using the drug samples to gamble, then when the drug lords had gotten a taste of his illegal products there had been a massive demand for it. At that point Naruto began producing legal, hospital grade drugs for hospitals and clinics if they too demanded for it. He now had small pockets of storehouses all over Fire country, Mountain country, Tea country and Snow country that sold his products in big shipments to buyers, access to these warehouses was restricted to only those that knew the password-of-the-week. The buildings were shrouded in six B rank illusions and only permitted a person that had the password ONLY after the first try. This only limited legal buys to going through Naruto's drug lord contacts that sent underlings to buy the products and sell it to the hospitals or clinics. It was all a well-connected network based on secrecy.

He had hundreds of people that worked under him in these warehouses; these warehouses supplied his drugs to smaller pockets of customers who also sold these to even smaller pockets of people. Naruto was sure that just an hour ago he had made another thousand ryu in sales. His business was constantly expanding and evolving, always one step ahead of government officials because, quite frankly, he had loyal customers in the government of each country. His shipments always began with a dozen and a half massive storage scrolls filled to the very brim with a variety of drugs, legal and illegal, organized perfectly based on who gets what and what goes where, and that large scroll was sealed into a smaller scroll he sealed into his left palm; this was made even easier with his shadow clones keeping up production. He had a single body switch seal placed in the back of a clothes shop, Ochichi's deluxe fashion line, where he was already in his Kitsugami disguise. He would then walk to a brothel where at the very back popular people in the underworld were usually found making and breaking deals. It was a place where violence was punished by banishment and killing was punished with death. The brothel was the focal point of Konoha's criminal underworld and without this focal point great underworld dealers were like sheep away from their flock; the legal authorities would swarm on them faster than they could say 'oof'. Gaining the trust of the dealers was not a problem; Naruto always had a way with words and an even greater flair for acting.

Most weren't aware that the criminal underworld could be so methodical, organized or even professional in their dealing; Naruto had a first-hand view of just how thorough they could be when they wanted to. This was just like his picture and his real name, Uzumaki Naruto, was the main contact point for any messages that wanted to get to Kitsugami. Whether it was his money or secret messages that must reach Kitsugami; the Hokage didn't know his connection to Kitsugami but even still he would have to be even more careful. It was a reason he didn't have a bank account to store his stacks and stacks of ryu notes; he was never sure when he would be caught and would be forced to run, but he would be prepared for that day. Uzumaki Naruto, in the criminal underworld, was regarded as Kitsugami Gumo's chief advisor, head of day-to-day activities in Kitsugami Drug Company and surrogate brother to the drug magnate. Though this fact was only made aware to two people; the head matron of the brothel the meetings were held and to an employee that he gave regular supplies to so that they would be shared among his warehouses, and who he in turn collected hefty amounts of money from the warehouse branches. If either died the secret would be passed on to another trusted member of the criminal underworld.

From there his growing drug empire expanded, making the boy the richest drug producer in the entire elemental nations.

It was a shame that the slave ring he had busted a month ago was destroyed; they were good customers for his products, not the only ones but good enough. Their destruction didn't slow down his production or even delayed the salary for his loyal workers, not even in the least.

The Konoha criminal underworld was built on centuries of tradition, blood and sacrifice. Every criminal act from pickpocketing and genocide had head monitors that regulated them, so as not to bring attention to the underworld. Admission in and out this society was very easy but gaining enough trust and reliability to be given the red ring of a Konoha baron was not easy. Naruto, as Kitsugami, had to spread his weight around and show the other barons that his products were much higher than legitimate. Trust came when he had used his limited connections to bail out the crime lord from the Uchiha police detainment after he had been accused of murdering a civilian family in cold blood; the crime lord was framed. The meeting place, or headquarters, for these Konoha barons, which Naruto was a member, was in the brothel located in a seedy section of the red light district. There was no leader among the barons but everyone was equal and with the same power as the other; being a baron was the highest post given to those that the underworld could rely on without question and did things for the other barons that would get his or her name into circulation. In the brothel arguments were only verbal, if any, but the moment it became physical the person would be indefinitely suspended from the brothel, like a wolf cast from his pack. Most of the normal members of the underworld didn't know that the prostitutes that served there were also highly trained assassins that were commanded by the head matron until it was too late. Their job was to keep all the members of the organisation in check; they also acted as Hit men (or better yet Hit women) to those that requested their services.

Konoha's criminal underworld didn't have a specific location but it had been acknowledged that each section of criminal activity had a meeting place and a head of the section (head of these sections were called 'monitors'), these heads usually met up with other heads to discuss matters. Konoha's underworld was deeply rooted in the elemental nations, so much so that it was connected to every other underworld in the elemental nations; even the ones in Iwagakure and Kumogakure. Meetings with barons from these different places happened every three months, usually in an underwater cave near Waterfall village; Naruto merely sent a highly powered shadow clone to attend for him. These meetings were what helped him in setting up more shops all over and increased his clientele. For any experimental drug he received he was given free rein to test them out on test human subjects these barons produced. He was careful to not bring any human test subject to his laboratory unless it couldn't be helped. There were five barons in Konoha, eight in Iwa, three in Kumo, none since the war in Iwa and four from Suna. Twenty in total.

Naruto and his loyal bodyguard slipped into the backroom of the clothes shop and he switched first, then Aoki-chan followed after quickly. They then switched into his laboratory to begin work on a new project he was working on.

 **Authors note**

 **Well there you have it.**

 **How am I doing so far? Please review.**

 **See you on the flip side.**

 **Foy.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello to you all!**

 **Your reviews are fantastic; it makes me fell all good and stuff. My day just got a little brighter. At least I know that my story is readable. Thanks to all the awesome guys that followed and favourite, I honestly don't know how long I would be able to keep this up until I get bored and start another story.**

 **Moving on!**

 **To 'LordofTerror': It's a sort of bad habit of mine; I rush things when I get excited, writing that chapter, and even this entire story. Plus I have a word limit for each of the stories I write, I almost exceeded mine last chapter but everything mentioned there was partially important to the story so I couldn't leave them out. Hope you believe my excuse ^^**

 **That's about it, I guess.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter,**

CHAPTER 3

 _One year later_

 _Somewhere in the forests at the edge of Lightning country_

Bushes rustled and burst apart as a panting Waterfall jounin ran through; the man wore a short sleeved white shirt under his blue jounin flak jacket and black pants, there was also a distinct slash across the Waterfall symbol on his hitaite. The hysterical man looked around suspiciously but didn't slow down; he had been on the run for two whole weeks now from a Konoha ninja team that had been after his bounty. He licked his dry lips and pushed aside some shrubs, cursing himself for attempting to even steal from Hidden Leaf, Kumogakure may provide the sanctuary he direly needed. He blindly threw the last of his shuriken at the people that were chasing him, but as he looked back he caught two extra thin, silver glinting ninja wire spooled through two senbon jammed into trees at his right and left. He quickly passed the trees but two feet smashed into the back of his head before he could go too far.

The attacker had used the elastic wire as a catapult and as the Waterfall shinobi sailed through the air he shot two more senbon with wires at him to wrap around him and pull him back. Just before the missing ninja could touch the ground his attacker leaped on his airborne body and speed wrapped him in elastic but iron strong ninja wire, eerily like a spider. When the man hit the ground heavily, with the added weight, the person, wearing a pair of black goggles that the edges shone a faint red breathed green smoke into his face. He was out faster than he thought.

Another person leaped down beside the first attacker, this person was as pale as the moon with purple hair and wearing standard jounin uniform. There was also a lethally sharp katana sheathed on her back, the first attacker stood up and looked down at the man he had captured, his blood red eyes blank behind his goggles from any sort of care.

"Confirm target,"

"Target already confirmed, Yugao-senpai," Naruto said as he ripped the man's left sleeves, showing off three fang tattoos, "Zen Yoruko, member of the three fangs cult," Naruto's uniform and features were not that different from how he began; except he now wore a jounin flak jacket and his black gloves were now ruby red. His skin had gotten paler, as pale as Yugao, and he had four dots over his eyebrows, two over each, that were hidden by his overhanging blonde bangs and two dots on the bridge of his nose under his eyes. His blonde hair was styled so that it covered his forehead but didn't hinder his sight.

Yugao smiled gently at the thirteen year old special jounin and refrained from patting his shoulder, knowing that the boy still hated being touched without his permission, "good job, Naruto-kun,"

The boy effortlessly hefted the bigger man on his shoulder, "let's head back to Konoha, the chunin exams starts in a week and I don't want to miss anything, if we run fast enough we can make it," Yugao nodded and they ran full tilt back to Konoha. The ANBU captain had temporarily dropped her post as ANBU operative so she could be a regular jounin again, the post was always open for her but she had said she wouldn't return until Naruto was a full jounin,

Naruto had been given his tokubetsu jounin rank when he had returned to Konoha. The Sandaime wasn't happy about him succeeding without any help but he had pulled back and handed the boy his jounin flak jacket, with the knowledge that Naruto would still have a supervisor he would have to answer to and would have to take at least one mission every month with. Yugao Uzuki was his supervisor just like Kureanai Yuuhi was Mitarashi Anko's supervisor. The Sandaime though had read reports of Naruto using poison bombs and being able to breathe out toxic poisons, this led the man to investigate Naruto further on how he was able to do this. Naruto had to allow some ninja into his home to see a makeshift lab set where he mixed chemicals for his poison bombs. This temporarily assuaged the old Kage's curiosity and allowed Naruto to perform his missions without any hindrance. Sadly though he also had to make the Hokage and his supervisor aware of his spider clan summoning when they found it suspicious he had taken a month long mission but returned three months later, also saying that he used the time to train with Kyuubi's chakra. During that time he had hidden in his laboratory and injected himself with Queen Spider's blood. He was proven right when he said it would hurt, pain killers didn't work but a full day of pain later was replaced by otherworldly clarity, strength, speed and flexibility. He was also now able to control any species of spiders with a mental command, he could stick to surfaces without chakra, he could run faster than most jounin and these were the only things he wanted to reveal…

Naruto was now acclaimed among his jounin peers as a master of infiltration, espionage, poison, trapping, capture and retrieval. So far there was no mission that centred on these aspects that Naruto couldn't complete; his only known rival in a few of these aspects was the toad sage, Jiriaya. The man had declared an unofficial war against the thirteen year old boy on who was the best spy but since Jiriaya had an earlier start than Naruto he was winning, the boy didn't care though.

When they got back to Konoha and dropped off the missing ninja in T&I they parted ways. There were more foreign ninja in the village now and the young tokubetsu jounin walked around, making sure to wear his hoodie but with it fully unzipped so all could see his jounin flak jacket, and waved to the shinobi and civilians' he passed. Months of seeing Naruto dressed like that had made them more accustomed to him; his reputation looked good so far. The hair on his neck stood on end and his head turned to an alleyway where he sensed the problem, he walked over and sighed tiredly when he saw what was happening.

"Please, just leave him alone!" Sakura yelled to Kankuro, who had the Sandaime's grandson, Sarutobi Konohamaru, off his feet and was about to punch his face,

"The little shit should apologise first," Kankuro growled,

"You're gonna get us in trouble, Kankuro, just leave the kid alone," Temari said with an idle flick of her blonde hair,

"I already said I was sorry!" Konohamaru yelled but Kankuro shook the boy violently,

"Say it like you mean it," Kankuro growled, he fist now twitching to give the boy a blow,

"I think that's enough, Suna shinobi," Naruto called from the entrance of the alley, he walked forward slowly with his hands in his pockets, "drop the kid and keep moving,"

"N-Naruto-san?" Sakura said quietly and sent a shaky smile when Naruto smiled at her, the taller boy ruffled her pink hair silently and kept walking to the two Suna ninjas,

"And who do you think you are?" Kankuro said,

Naruto stopped in front of the boy and replied, "A foreign shinobi attacking a civilian, especially a child, in his own village is considered a crime, punishable by indefinite expulsion from the shinobi system in your hidden village, and this is considering the fact that Suna is allied to Konoha. Are you aware of this?" Kankuro blubbered, "I thought so,"

The sand puppet master hastily dropped Konohamaru and the boy hid behind the tall blonde boy, he stuck out his tongue at Kankuro while his two friends rushed and also took their places behind Naruto.

"I'll just be on my way now," Naruto said with a smile as he turned around, ushering the three academy students out of the alley until he felt a small burst of chakra in the air and a sand shunshin spin behind him, he still kept his back to the sand siblings, "go home, kids," he said to the three and they thanked him as they ran away, "and get down from there Sasuke," he said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. The Uchiha leaped down from the branch he was standing on with a distasteful scowl on his face,

"You, the one with the goggles," a red haired boy said after the sand shunshin had settled,

"My name is Naruto," the blonde said over his shoulder,

"My name is Sabaku no Gaara and I want to know if you will be in the chunin exams,"

"Nope, I'm a tokubetsu jounin," Naruto said as he turned to the sand siblings, pointing at his flak jacket hidden under his hoodie, "but good luck any way,"

"It's a pity, I would have wanted to crush you with my sand," Gaara said blankly,

Naruto just barely suppressed the feral grin that wanted to spread on his face, "uh huh, sure," he turned around an began walking away, "I advise you three to stay out of trouble, that was the Sandaime's grandson you were about to punch, puppet master,"

"How did he know I use puppets…?" Kankuro muttered,

Temari furrowed her eyebrows at the blonde boy that was walking away before she looked at her younger red haired brother, who was glaring harsh death at Naruto. She was too late to say anything before Gaara sent a wave of sand at Naruto; Sasuke and Sakura leaped aside and stuck to the walls,

"Naruto-san!" Sakura yelled,

The hairs on Naruto's neck stood up again and he ran up the wall to his right, flipped off and as he was in the air he removed four white marbles from his shuriken pouch and threw it at the wave of sand. The tremendous wave of sand ate the marbles and soon after spider webs of ice cracked on its surface and overwhelmed it, freezing the sand over with thick ice. Naruto landed on the surface and ran at high jounin speed at Gaara, who was frantically trying to regain control of his sand until Naruto sent a jaw shattering elbow strike to his face. The sand on the boys jaw held strong until Naruto whipped out a purple goo oozing senbon and slashed it across Gaara's stomach, much to quickly for the other boy to anticipate before a brutal knee met the same place. Air blasted out of the red haired boy's mouth after this and he crumbled to his knees, Naruto used this chance to bring down his heel in an axe kick to the back of Gaara's head. The downed boy made an attempt to move but Naruto had already speed wrapped him in tough ninja wire. This happened in a whirlwind of activity much too fast for the genin to keep track of.

Naruto tutted and shook his head, ignoring Temari, who was ready with her battle fan, "to think I actually thought you were cool," he grabbed the back of the ninja wire binding Gaara and hefted the dazed boy to his feet, "you're lucky I'm in a good mood today or else I would have reported you to the Hokage," he pulled a single wire from the millions that wrapped Gaara and it immediately came undone and was sucked into Naruto's senbon launchers, "and stand _down_ , girl," he ordered and Temari hesitantly dropped her guard, "good, now listen here, Sabaku no Gaara," he said and he glared at the red haired boy, who flinched slightly and avoided looking back, "I am leaving now, if you attack me again, Kazekage's son or not, _**I will end you**_ ," he turned around and smashed his fist on the ice holding Gaara's sand in place, and it shattered on contact; the sand fell down limply on the ground and slithered back into Gaara's gourd, "same goes for both of you," with that he turned around,

Sakura leaped down beside him and ducked her head when he looked at her, "thank you for helping, Naruto-san," the boy gave her a friendly smile,

"It was nothing, where's the other member of your team?" he asked, walking with Sakura and Sasuke slinking behind them cautiously,

"You mean Sai? I don't know what he does in his free time," Sakura shrugged,

"Either way, good luck in the exams, you too Sasuke-san,"

The Uchiha grunted, "Whatever,"

The jounin was about to say something else but Sakura spoke up first, "Naruto-san…you're a jounin right…?"

Naruto quirked up an eyebrow at her question and said, "A tokubetsu jounin but a jounin nonetheless, why do you ask?"

"Do-do you think we're ready for the chunin exams?"

"You should ask yourself that question; do you think _you're_ ready for the exams?"

The pink haired girl shrugged tiredly, "I don't know," Naruto motioned for her to go on, they were now slowly walking passed small shops in the merchants district, "Kakashi-sensei says we're ready, but I don't think so; we almost got our hands handed to us if sensei wasn't there in our first A rank mission,"

"That's the reason he was there in the first place, to show you the ropes so you'll be more prepared when you start going on missions on your own,"

It was a humbling experience to team seven after their first A rank; they had been exposed to a small dose of fear in the form of the demon of the mist, Momochi Zabuza, and the member of the seven swordsman of the mist had schooled them on what it meant to be shinobi. Sakura would admit without shame that she was the least prepared among her team mates since she had spent most of her time prepping her makeup instead of running inventory on her weapons, and after the mission the first thing she had requested was extra training from Kakashi. The man had helped her find her passion in medical ninjutsu from there, saying that her small chakra capacity allowed her to have a great amount of control over it. Sasuke too focused on not being surprised again, using his sharingan whenever he was training.

Sakura rubbed her arms with her hands and her eyes drooped, "you know how I was in the academy…I was a good student but I'm a horrible ninja,"

Naruto was silent for a moment, "what are you good at?"

"I…I know a little on medical ninjutsu and-and I can use genjutsu, mostly C rank,"

"Then that's good, what I know about the chunin exams is that they evaluate the genin on planning, cunning and skills. You don't need to win to be promoted,"

"You don't think we can win?" Sasuke interrupted,

Naruto shook his head, "I didn't say that, I mean that you put in a good showing for the crowd and for the Hokage, that's what matters,"

The argument died on Sasuke's tongue and he stuffed his hands in his pockets, "yeah, ok,"

"Win or lose you guys and the other teams will do great, I'm sure of it,"

Sakura gave Naruto a small, shaky smile and Sasuke rolled his eyes, "thank you, Naruto-san,"

He waved it away and gave them thumbs up, "I need to go now, there's a jounin meeting in the Hokage's office in five minutes. I'll see you guys later," he waved over his shoulder but thin arms wrapped around his stomach and a head settled between his shoulder blades; his hands clenched unconsciously and his lips twitched downwards but he quickly covered it with a smile, only Sasuke caught his hands and the Uchiha raised a curious eyebrow, watching as Naruto painfully unclenched his fists but they were now more like claws,

"I mean it Naruto, thank you,"

Naruto turned around in the girls arms and patted her back before he gently pushed her off, making sure not to seem rude, "no problem, now I really need to get to the Hokage's office," he turned around and put his hands into his pockets, his hood was already up so a shadow was cast to his nose. The two genin watched the tokubetsu jounin walk off through the crowd of merchants to the Kage's tower until Sasuke stood beside Sakura and asked,

"What was that about?"

A small smile played on the pink haired girls lips as she answered, "nothing you should worry about, see you tomorrow!" she waved and sped off towards her house, making Sasuke wonder what had gotten into her; she hadn't asked him for a date.

At the Hokage's office Naruto politely knocked on the door and poked his head inside, seeing that all the other active Konoha jounin and special jounin were already there,

"Glad to see you could join us, Naruto," Hiruzen said as he blew out some smoke from the corner of his lips,

"I was held up somewhere," the boy said as he shuffled in, the other jounin weren't that much taller than him but he was still the youngest in the room. Yugao, not in her ANBU mask, called him over to her side of the room, the window, and he sat down on the edge,

"Alright, I just want to tell you all what you'll be doing in the exams," the Sandaime said and he handed small files to the jounin, making sure to call their names, "I've already organized the chunin on what they will be doing. Kakashi, Gai, Kureanai and Asuma, you four will be sealed into the earth and heaven scrolls, until you are _properly_ unsealed. Don't worry about air, food or water; Jiriaya personally designed these seals, he had all those things accounted for,"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the four jounin said,

"When you are unsealed you will stay with your teams in the competitors stand, make sure to cheer them on," the old man said with a twinkle in his eyes, the four jounin nodded, "Anko and Naruto, you two will be in charge of the security in the forest of death, any external interruption should be contained and reported, understood?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the two said; Naruto was idly twirling a six inch long senbon with his fingers and Anko was leaning on the wall beside him, sucking on a Dango stick, the snake summoner even sent a two fingered salute as she used her other hand to hold the mission specs file open,

"Yugao, Hayate and Genma, you two will be in charge of security before and after the second test, mostly at night. Naruto, since you are best at combat in the dark you will be joining them," the three jounin read through what they were supposed to focus on, "any suspicious behaviour from the foreign ninja or any unregistered person should be contained and reported. The ANBU will provide support if things go south. Use deadly force if it can't be helped," he blew out more smoke from his mouth, "dismissed,"

The jounin filed out of the office quietly. Naruto waved to his supervisor and her boyfriend, Genma, as they made their way home, as he walked to his own. His goggle protected eyes, that were in turn hidden under his hood, kept a careful watch on those that passed him, not want to be robbed of anything. On instinct his left hand reached out and gave a hidden low five to a spectacle wearing, silver haired man, and a small paper square that had been passed to him slipped into his sleeve. Just before the silver haired man could fully pass he stopped, leaned in and whispered,

"Mistress sends her love," the blonde boy nodded in acknowledgement and replied,

"Tell her I send mine too,"

A smile etched onto the man's face, "she will be very happy to hear that,"

Naruto smiled back slightly, "how is she?"

"She is well,"

"Good to hear," the low grumbling in the red light district muffled their voices, both parted ways.

It had been a long while since Naruto had heard from Orochimara of the Sannin, the last time being when the woman had sent him money when he had just graduated from the academy. When Naruto pushed open his front door and used his foot to close it he unsealed the letter in the small paper square, it was a short one,

 _I'll be in the forest of death running an errand, meet me there if you can._

 _Orochimara of the Sannin._

 _P.S if you can't make it I'll see you at your place._

Naruto screwed his lips to the side and put the letter into his pocket. He was sure that he loved his godmother, like family; she was the first one to look out for his well-being and she had set him on where he should go in life, he owed a lot to her and it would make his day to finally meet her in person. The problem lay on how he would be able to excuse himself from his post in the CCTV room while avoiding the cameras in the forest.

His answer came the next day when he was in the security camera room with Anko, whiling away the time my commanding a tiny spider summons to run over his hand. His eyes watched the tiny spider skitter on his hand in frenzy until the door burst open and a chunin ran in, panting like a race horse.

Anko sat up, formerly reading a magazine, and glared at the chunin, "what is it?"

"We have a problem…sector seven…"

"What problem?" Naruto said, his eyes still fixed on the spider he was controlling,

"I…can't explain…you need to come,"

"Let's go," Naruto said as he stood up, the chunin nodded and hurried out of the room, Anko followed after the young blonde.

The scene they walked in was horrifying to anyone that wasn't used to seeing even more horrific things. There was a corpse strewn across the ground and it looked like a female with her face ripped off. All the blood in her body had been drained and she didn't have any finger bones. Naruto knelt on one knee and used his pointer and middle finger to turn her head from left to right, it looked fresh; there weren't any worms in her and the bugs looked like they had made their nest recently. He furrowed his eyebrow and turned to Anko, but she was staring at the dead woman with wide eyes, "know who did this, Anko?"

"I can give a guess. You three," she pointed to the three chunin that had found the woman, "go tell the Hokage, we'll go into the forest and handle the person that did this," their subordinates' saluted and ran off to do what she had ordered, "it was Orochimara,"

"Are you certain?"

She got off her knees and began to run to the forest of death, "Yes," Naruto caught up with her and they both disappeared in the forest,

The boy could feel a small tingle spread in his stomach as he followed his nose to where the scent of snakes and blood was strongest. He walked in on the scene of an ink tiger being punched back into ink and Orochimara holding up an unconscious Sakura by her neck,

"Pathetic," the Sannin hissed and threw the girl across the clearing to a tree but Naruto shot a net from his left launcher and a senbon above her that caught her and hung her on a tree, "your disturbing my hunt," the pale Sannin hissed and turned around, barely keeping her eyes from widening on who she saw, "ah…Anko-chan and Naruto-kun…what a surprise,"

"I'm finally going to kill you sensei," Anko snarled,

"Oh you think so huh, then come at me," she made a 'come hither' motion with her right hand and just as Anko sped over the Sannin activated her cursed seal, sending the crazy snake lady into mind numbing pain before she finally passed out, "you were always too brash, Anko-chan, and too slow," Orochimara said as she shook her head, her small, black lipstick covered lips screwed to the side in irritation,

The Sannin though had to lean back when Naruto seemingly appeared out of nowhere and sent a punch to her face, when she dodged the blow she was again surprised that Naruto merely used the punch to hide a savage left heel kick that effectively met her face with a horrifying crack. The woman then melted into a mud puddle, Naruto looked around carefully. He raised his right leg and used the sole of his foot to deflect a thrown kunai. Kicking the weapon up and sending it back with a spinning kick. Orochimara ran out of the place the weapon had disappeared to with a sickening grin on her face and a faint purple bruise on her cheek where Naruto had kicked her. The taijutsu fight between them could be considered legendary; they both sent snap kicks that met and synchronized drilling blows that countered the other, Naruto slipped behind the woman and savagely hacked at her neck but she twisted away from him,

" _Hidden shadow snakes,"_ the woman hissed and out of her long sleeves multiple white snakes shot out at Naruto, the boy opened his palm and returned fire by saying,

" _Hidden shadow spiders,"_ pitch black spiders that were about as large as his fingers erupted out of his sleeves and countered the Sannin's attack perfectly. Orochimara abruptly cancelled her jutsu and spat out the Kusanagi at Naruto, easily cutting through the throngs of lethal spiders. The boy's eyes widened a little and he just barely leaned away from the legendary sword, feeling the breeze just waft past his nose, this allowed an opening for Orochimara to erupt out of the ground and bring down her fist on his head.

But the blow never connected.

The tall woman, probably as tall as Naruto, stood frozen with her fist hovering over his blonde head. She stared at him and he stared back, the two members of team seven that were conscious watched in fascination as the woman slowly dropped her hand and her shoulder sagged, she looked away and murmured, "I can't hit you…I just…can't," she said it so quietly that only Naruto could hear her, "you look like… _him_ …so much," he could see the defeat in her eyes as she said this, the way her heart broke when she spared him a fleeting smile,

Naruto stayed in his brace-for-impact stance but his guard slowly dropped, "there are cameras everywhere," he whispered,

"Then do what you have to do, Naruto-kun," she shrugged, "I promise I won't mind,"

"I…I still want to talk to you, I want to know _you_ , Orochimara-baa-chan," Naruto said, unconsciously calling her grandma,

The pale white woman chuckled under her breathe, sounding like a low menacing hiss, "You did _not_ just call me grandma,"

"I-I-I'm sorry," Naruto said and his eyes lowered, "it's just that…you're the first to care about me…it'd be great if I got to know you and you got to know me, y'know," he was glad that the cameras didn't have audio but he was worried if the two genin hiding would hear him,

A large, sincere smile stretched on the snake Sannin's face, "your place tonight then, and…I'm sorry about this,"

"About wh-" the air rushed out of his mouth as the rogue Sannin impaled him with a kunai,

"I'm so sorry Naruto-kun," she muttered as she slowly lowered the boy to the ground, "I made sure none of your major organs were hit,"

A little blood gurgled out of his mouth but he still smiled at her, "I'll be fine…go," she nodded and was about to blur into the forest but she stopped for a moment, indecision on her face before she finally made her decision and kissed Naruto on his forehead, for once the boy didn't flinch at the contact, he just closed his eyes and savoured the short, loving contact,

"I'll see you later, ok?" he slowly nodded with his eyes still shut and he felt her presence leave the area. He put his right hand over the knife wound, making sure to gently pull out the knife before he did, he staggered to his feet and blinked when he saw the two male genin staring at him, then he remembered that the snake Sannin had on black makeup, which included black lipstick. He frantically rubbed the lipstick stain on his forehead and sat down heavily beside a tree,

"You guys don't need to hide anymore, she's gone," he grunted as he carefully used his left hand to reach into his kunai pouch and pulled out a small sachet. He shakily tore it open with his teeth and sprinkled a red powder over the wound; he sighed when the pain subsided the skin and began to knit back together,

"You almost had her, why did you stop?" Sai said as he stood in front of Naruto with his arms crossed,

"She's a Sannin; I don't think it's possible to 'almost have her'" Naruto snapped as he put his right hand over the knife wound, feeling the pain reduce to a dull throb, "set up camp for the night, I'll be out of your hair in thirty minutes," he grunted to his feet and hefted Anko up bridal style, gently laying her under the tree he formerly sat under, he whipped out a moist white hand kerchief and place it on the cursed seal, the heat that was emanating off the seal slowly reduced and ten minutes later the snake summoners eyes flickered open. Her pupil-less eyes saw Naruto sitting next to her reading a book on the human respiratory system, he didn't look at her before he spoke up,

"Can you walk?"

The woman whined under her breathe and struggled to sit up but it was to no avail, "No…everything hurts. What happened?"

"We got our asses handed to us is what happened," Naruto replied sharply, barely keeping his hands from squeezing the book her was reading,

"Fucking fantastic," Anko said under her breathe.

Sasuke and Sai observed the two special jounin over the fire; Sakura was still out cold lying under some blankets near the fire. It was past sunset and they were preparing some meat on the fire. Naruto had already fully healed and was humouring himself by reading a book while he waited for his fellow jounin to wake up. The woman realized with a start that the boy had covered her up with a red blanket, probably to conserve some moral decency he _thought_ Anko had. She snorted and weakly tried to sit up but again she failed. The only sounds in the small clearing were the faint crackling of the fire and the soft chirps the crickets were making, the spider summoner licked his pointer finger and turned a page in his book. The silence was solemn until all of their eyes flickered to Sakura when she groaned, sitting up slowly as she finally woke up. Naruto went back to reading his book but this time he idly threw a pill into Anko's mouth that when she bit into it some of her energy returned to her, he tossed three more to the genin team and they gratefully bit into it,

"Chakra replenishing pills I cooked up in my lab," he mumbled and the woman nodded her head, knowledge of Naruto's lab was not secret anymore, "can you walk now?"

She got to her feet but her legs shook violently, forcing her to slump against a tree and slid to a sitting position, "fuck it all…" she groaned in frustration,

"We need to go and report what happened to the Sandaime," Naruto said to her as he snapped the book closed, he was all business as he stood up and looked down on the woman, "I'll carry you-"

"Like hell you will," she snarled,

"Right now I don't care what you think, it's either I carry you out of here or I leave you in the hands of these genin, helpless and barely able to stand,"

The woman glared up at him, a vain effort to intimidate him, until she sighed and nodded, "fine…but if you do anything stupid…" she left the threat hanging in the air and the boy shrugged as he summoned a clone to carry her bridal style,

The real Naruto gave the three genin a two fingered salute and said, "stay out of trouble," he was about to run out until he added as an afterthought, "there is a genin team that's been watching us for ten minutes now, maybe waiting for me and Anko to leave,"

"Why are you telling us, isn't it cheating?" Sasuke asked,

"It is, just like giving you those pills is cheating," Naruto answered frankly, "you sensed them before right…Sai?" he said after thinking up the boy's name,

"I'm not a sensor but I knew they were there,"

"Regardless, you guys are in for a fight," as he stepped into the forest team Dosu struck.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto had already dropped Anko off in the hospital wing and was now sitting in front of the Hokage, a video playing on his fight with Orochimara on loop. Hiruzen was sitting on his desk in the office in the chunin exam stadium, watching Naruto's expression for anything akin to guilt. There was no audio for them to hear the conversation and Naruto had made sure to muffle his lips so that they wouldn't be read. The Hokage clicked the pause button when Orochimara had stabbed him in his stomach, using deadly speed to even get that close to him; Naruto's eyes bugged out and his cheeks puffed up with air as the Sannin winced at what she had done. Hiruzen silently dropped the remote on his desk and propped his elbows on the desk, his chin on his thumbs and his fingers just under his eyes that stared at Naruto fixedly,

"Are you ready to give me an explanation?"

The blonde boy raised an eyebrow and replied, "About what?"

"Why you held back,"

"She held back too,"

Hiruzen sighed tiredly and rubbed his eyes, "you had every chance to finish her off but you didn't take it, I know as a fact you have a high control over your spider summons, and you can _easily_ regenerate from that stab wound. Why did you let her go?" Naruto stayed silent and the old man sighed again, "I've told you, Naruto…Orochimara is nothing but trouble, she will use you and dump you like scum,"

"…She was the first person to give two shits about me, Hokage-sama; she cared when no one did even though she couldn't visit me personally,"

"Is this what this is about? She gave you some goggles and a scroll on spiders-"

"She gave them to me when I was in desperate need of them, I was so young but I already thought that my life would not go anywhere, Orochimara proved me wrong. I'm _**not**_ sorry for feeling some form of familial love for her," Naruto stood up abruptly, "I'll be leaving now, I have a night shift to prepare for," he left the office, ignoring when Yugao tried to call for him after hearing what he had said. Behind his back the Sandaime Hokage nodded for a small ANBU squad to tail him.

Losing the ANBU was child's play for Naruto; as he walked into the red light district he walked into a clothing shop, the one he uses to switch to his apartment, and switched to his apartment. As his feet touched down on the ground he was immediately assaulted with kisses to his face and a tight hug from the snake Sannin herself. His face reddened in embarrassment but he didn't push her away, his arms slowly, shakily reached around her waist and hugged her back.

She pulled her head back and looked at his face carefully, a happy grin played on her lips, "I've waited _so_ long for this day," she bit her bottom lip and hugged him tightly again before she led him to the living room where he found Aoki-chan standing at attention with her right hand on her katana handle for a quick draw, staring at the silver haired man that had slipped him the note. The black haired samurai looked at him quickly with her eyes then back to the medic, who was sitting on a chair with an amused expression on his face,

"Stand down, Aoki-chan, he's with her,"

The girl bowed and removed her hand from the handle. Orochimara looked at her then back to Naruto, "she was here when I came in, you told her I was your godmother," she stated this,

"She's a very good friend of mine, she had to know," Naruto replied as he ushered the paper pale snake summoner to sit down on a chair, Aoki shuffled to Naruto quietly and Naruto leaned in and whispered, "anything to eat?"

"Hai, there's some pork and chicken flavoured rice in the fridge, I could warm it up if you want,"

"Please, if you don't mind. Oh and make some green tea for us, thank you," he said gratefully and she went to do what he had asked,

"She's very polite," Orochimara said as she crossed her legs, she patted the seat beside her for Naruto to sit down on and the boy did so, "now let's catch up, I want to hear what you've been up to all these years,"

"Same goes for you," Naruto said and he felt a small bubbling feeling in his gut that felt like when he was about to make a major breakthrough in his experiments,

The woman smiled gently and put her right hand on his own that were clenched on his knees, "I know, I owe you that and much, much more," Naruto's eyes flickered to Kabuto and the woman waved for him to give them some privacy.

This was probably the first time a living, breathing human being ever made him excited to talk to. He spoke with Orochimara about everything that had happened in his life and all he had discovered, even on his drug empire and his disguise as Kitsugami Gumo. This shocked Orochimara because she had been buying some drugs from the Kitsugami Drug Company for a long while, even going as far as showing Naruto a box of pain killer tablets with his logo at the top; a skeletal spider head with nine legs around it. He had confided in her that the Hokage had launched a top secret investigation on his corporation when the drugs in the hospital had started purchasing from him had mistakenly come up during an inventory check, they didn't have anything solid on Kitsugami yet but he suspected that they would soon infiltrate the criminal underworld. Naruto spoke with her on the genetically altered spider blood his system that had given him a higher control over the Kyuubi chakra; there was some nature chakra in his chakra network that equalized the Kyuubi's chakra and balanced out his own chakra, this nature chakra didn't negatively react to him because he was now _technically_ part spider. They shared a cup of tea and some pork and chicken flavoured rice as Orochimara began regaling tales of her travels all over the elemental nations and of all the experiments she had conducted, telling him that she had created an entire Hidden Village called Hidden Sound (Otoagakure) where she stored her experiments. She told him that she had laboratories all over the continent that served as her hideout when she wanted. Orochimara had even told him of when she was in the Akatsuki, partnered with Kisame; making sure to warn him that it was probably Hoshigaki Kisame and Uchiha Itachi that would come after him.

The older woman had even confided in the young boy that she was Ashitori Roshimaru's experiment X-19.

The evil scientist had created her out of his own cells and combined it with that of a reptile; it was inevitable that she would have a strong connection with snakes. He treated her, in some twisted way, like his own child, making sure she went to bed on time, got up early and ate her vegetables. He had told her that she was his most successful experiment. But the tests he kept putting her through…

When the man's lab had been raided, she was six years old then, the ninja had thought that she was an orphan Ashitori had kidnapped and was experimenting on. They had placed her in the orphanage where she was treated like a freak, even by her caretakers. Her time in the academy was lonely and filled with hate for her fellow students as well as her time as a genin. When the Sandaime had picked her, Jiriaya and Tsunade to be his students it looked like her life would get better but it didn't. Jiriaya kept on making brash outbursts that hurt more than created any sense of camaraderie and Tsunade was a spoilt brat. That time she had already set up a secret laboratory in the forest of death where she studied and experimented on people she kidnapped. It was when she was a chunin at fourteen did something happen that changed her whole perception on humanity. Or better yet, _someone_.

She had found Minato violently shivering in the heavily pouring ice cold rain as he moved from house to house, asking the occupants for shelter. She had been late coming back to Konoha from a mission with her team mates and she wasn't aware that she had also been standing in the rain, watching the street urchin get the door slammed on his face by everyone he asked help from. She didn't know what compelled her that day to approach the boy and invite him to her house, maybe she thought that she would end up killing him and studying his dead body but despite giving Minato his own room to sleep in and food to eat she couldn't, for the first time in her life, muster up the bloodlust in her to kill the four year old boy. The torrential shower had done more harm than good for the young blonde boy and Orochimara still couldn't get her cold, ruthlessness back into her when she looked into his wide, blue eyes silently pleading for her to keep him for longer. The genius girl managed to get the boys health back up and was expecting him to be on his way but he stayed, Minato never demanded much, he never raised his voice or disagreed with anything Orochimara said to him; he just looked up at her with reflective blue orbs and did what she asked, which mostly consisted of things that were for his own good. Before she knew it Minato was eight and she had personally registered him for the academy under her name as his next of kin, she found out that he was the first person she could confide in, as stupid as that sounded, the only person that was able to ever sneak up on her and the first person to hug her when memories of her time with Ashitori returned in full force. The girl wasn't even aware of the fact that she had stopped experimenting on human beings after she had let him in. They had rubbed off of each other in more ways than one; Minato took interest in spiders and fuinjutsu and Orochimaru now had a craving for ramen every once in a while.

The snake Sannin was heartbroken when Minato had told her that her male team mate had noticed his skills in fuinjutsu, skills Orochimaru had already laid a _foundation_ for, and was offering him an apprenticeship. He was already a shinobi by then, and a very promising one at that, so she couldn't bar him from doing what he wanted; the Namikaze always made sure to be back before sunset and had assured her that he wouldn't be moving out anytime soon, this was the only promise he broke. Then Minato had told her of his second crush, the first one being on Orochimara (boom, shocker. Can you sense my sarcasm?), on a former classmate. He began spending more time with the Uzumaki princess and before the snake Sannin knew it they were hitched and expecting their first child, the pale woman relapsed back into her cruel studies the first day Minato arrived at midnight after a date with Kushina, telling her that he had to move out. She grew detached from him and the rest of the world, feigned the fact that she didn't care anymore but he never lost faith in her, Minato never stopped caring. So the day one of Orochimara's labs was discovered and all of her vile experiments were brought to light, he blamed himself. Most would say that the Sandaime was the one that last saw Orochimara leave but it wasn't true, Minato had stubbornly chased after his surrogate sister and they had, for the first time, had a fight that was outside a friendly spar. The Sannin had beat him within an inch of his life without an ounce of remorse on her face, and when it was time to impale his heart with a kunai…

…She couldn't…

A single tear slipped out of her eyes as the rain poured down from the sky, eerily similar to the downpour she had first met and saved him from, and she apologised before she left him there on the ground. It was the last time he saw her, years of desperately searching for his long lost sister were all in vain, despite the numerous times jiriaya and Hiruzen told him that he was wasting his time, Orochimara was a lost cause and that it was best for both him and Kushina if she stayed away, but the stubborn blonde man never listened. He had finally made a breakthrough in his search for the snake Sannin but it clashed with the day his wife was giving birth to their first son. He pushed his mission back a few hours after Kushina had given birth to Naruto, he kept telling himself, but it never came. Kyuubi broke free and he died sealing the great monster into his son. He took the guilt of never finding his sister to the grave, the rogue snake Sannin had been a secret witness to his burial. Knowledge of how close the Yondaime Hokage was with the rogue snake summoner was wiped out of konoha's history books not even a week after the Kyuubi attack, and no one knew of the extents Minato Namikaze would take just so he could find Orochimara, no one, that is, besides Kushina Uzumaki, Jiriaya of the Sannin, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Hatake Kakashi, Yugao Uzuki and Orochimara of the Sannin.

Naruto and Orochimara spoke to each other for so long and so freely that they weren't aware when they were facing each other with their knees touching and his right hand laced with her left. She was using her free hand to animatedly regale a tale of her epic escape from snow country after she had replicated a plan for their famed chakra armour; when it was midnight Naruto used his own free hand to summon a clone and sent him off to cover his night shift in the CCTV room in the forest of death. The godmother and godson connected so well; they had similar likes, dislikes, hobbies, and even ambitions. It wouldn't come as a shock to anyone who watched that they had created a new form of secret communication by just gestures. Naruto listened with wide eyes as she told him of one of the times she had experimented on nature chakra on a human being, creating a goliath man called Jugo. He had said that he had wanted to try the experiment on a human captive he had in his lab, Mizuki Touji, but hadn't found the time to do so.

"Nature chakra only works best with animals and animal summoners," Naruto piped in, and the woman nodded to what he said, "I haven't tested it out on someone besides myself but every book I read on it tells me the same thing,"

"You should know not to blindly trust what a book says," the Sannin tutted,

"I know, I know," he said, "so what else did you plan to do in Konoha?"

The woman looked around conspiratorially, making Naruto quirk up the sides of his lips in amusement, "I want to kill Sarutobi-sensei,"

"Can I ask why…?"

Here she threw her free hand in the air and sighed dramatically, "nearly everything wrong is his fault; he took Minato away, he brainwashed him, he kicked me out of Konoha, he tried to brainwash you too. Plus, I have a thorn to pick with him, personal stuff," Naruto nodded in understanding, "will you be coming with me after…?"

He patted her hand, "when things settle down, I need some time to get my affairs in order here,"

"You're shutting down Kitsugami Drug Company?"

"Not exactly…Aoki-chan has been tailing a former contact of mine for a while here in Konoha; she says she suspects the man is feeding the Hokage info on Kitsugami Gumo. That'll explain why last week two warehouses in fire country went off the radar and my workers there are in the T&I now,"

"Do you think the man knows who you are?"

"Only two people know who I am and they are trusted members of the criminal underworld," this was the same with his workers, each and every one of them had been sworn to a 'never ask, never tell' sort of secrecy especially when it concerned their bosses identity, that way if they were caught they had the deniability card to pull without any problems, as rewards he would break them out of the T&I when he could. His former contact had broken this oath by becoming too inquisitive; he fired him and cut him off from the Kitsugami Drug Company before he could do any damage. Orochimara listened to him lay his problems out patiently, and that was when he _really_ looked at her; she had black circles under her eyes and her shoulders sagged even more than normal, she had a tired air about her, even though she had on a lot of clothes on he still noticed that she was thinner than how the bingo books depicted her, her lips were thinner, the black lines going down the corner of her eyes were now prominent and well passed her nose and she had his custom made pain killers with her.

She noticed him slowdown in what he was saying and his eyes drooped behind his goggles just before he stopped, she observed him and when he couldn't meet her eyes it dawned on her,

"So you know huh,"

"How long do you have?" he asked,

"…three years," she said quietly and sighed, "it would have been longer but my fight with Itachi took a bigger toll on me than I thought," she gently squeezed his hand when they began to shake,

"What is it?" he knew that trying to convince her not to go ahead with her planned assassination attempt wouldn't work, if there was one thing in the bingo book that every other countries could relate with concerning her it was that she was deathly determined when she set her mind on something,

"It's a rare one, I haven't found a name for it yet but it's like a cancer of the heart…I found out ten years ago but I've had it since I was 'born'" he still wasn't looking at her, "there's no cure,"

"There has to be something…maybe I can-"

"No,"

"But-"

"No," she shook her head,

"I have to do something!" he yelled, he lifted his goggles up and used his forearm to rub the tears building up there; he placed them back on quickly, "I have to do something…"

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, it's too late," he didn't say anything, rather he kept looking out of the window to the slowly rising sun, "killing the Sandaime is on my bucket list but…meeting you was the first thing on it," she gently raised her right hand and slowly placed his goggles on his forehead, revealing his wet crimson red vulpine eyes, she shuffled closer, if that's even possible, and looked at him with her yellow snake-like eyes, "teaching you everything I know is the last thing," she placed a small kiss on his forehead and hugged him. Another thing he had gained from the spider summons DNA in his body was that he had gotten four more additional 'eyes', the four dots on his forehead, that were able to 'see' the world in incredible detail even though his hair blocked them, those 'eyes' equalized the light that entered his real eyes by already giving him an image of how something was supposed to be, bright or dim lighting. The two dots on his nose served as his second 'noses'; they only served to amplify his sense of smell and perception of his environment if he was, by some crazy chance, blinded by an overload to his sight.

"Who else knows?" Naruto muttered into her chest, he clenched the clothes at her side in his fist and buried his head in even more,

"I think Kabuto-kun suspects something but you're the first and only person I'll tell,"

"I'll get my affairs in order and join you as fast as I can," he muffled out,

"Take your time," she said and kissed the top of his head, "I need to go now, things to do, people to see," he nodded in her chest and pulled away from her,

"Wait, how are you going to get close enough to the Hokage to kill him?"

"I'm posing as the Kazekage, and I have my Sound four create a barrier so no one disturbs," she said as she stood up, "when that day comes, if any of my shinobi or Sand shinobi come after your life kill them if you want, I don't really mind what happens to them," he nodded and she put her hand on the front door handle,

"How did you get in anyway? Even Jiriaya hasn't been able to do that,"

She smirked a little and replied, "When I stabbed you, I stashed some of your blood away,"

The boy chuckled and rolled his eyes, "of course you did," he waved and she opened the front door, not even letting the light fall on her completely before she melted into a pile of mud, he suspected her silver haired apprentice, Kabuto, was already outside.

He felt Aoki's presence behind him and ever so gently she took his right hand in both of hers, her katana was leaning on the wall leading to the kitchen, and squeezed it in some sort of way to comfort him. He took in a slow, deep breathe and let it out just as slow.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Aoki-chan's story**

 _The day after Orochimara's visit_

The black haired A rank swordswoman was standing in front of a see-through container that had a rare snow leopard caged in it. Her trusty katana was sheathed and held firmly in her red obi while she tapped the glass twice, once to wake up the animal and another to get it angry; as expected it lunged at her but it was pushed back when its claws hit the reinforced glass wall. It always surprised her how her current master was well connected, he had proven to her that if he wanted something he would most certainly get it through any means necessary. She didn't flinch when she felt her master step beside her, seemingly out of nowhere; that was another thing about him, ever since he had infused his Queen Spider's DNA into himself he had become even more stealthy, whether that was his initial intention or not. A year of working for him loyally had told her that he only harmed those he deemed too dangerous to associate with, the money he gave her on a monthly basis was mouth-watering and the freedom he allowed her was very well appreciated but it was the fact that if she ever attempted to assassinate him and _failed_ …

She closed her eyes and sighed; she didn't want to think about it, even though every other assassination she had personally done was a success she had a niggling feeling that the Uzumaki spider summoner had somehow found a way to cheat death.

Naruto put his hands into his hoodie's pockets and spoke, "beautiful isn't she?"

Aoki nodded in agreement, her blonde master had always shown her that there could be beauty in everything; all it took was seeking it out, "Hai, she is,"

"I bought her off a Fang country merchant that wanted to use her as meat for his dogs, that was last time we went for the barons' meeting,"

"I don't remember seeing you buy her…"

"Oh, it was already pre-arranged, all I had to do was give him the money and he'll give me the leopard," her mouth opened in a small 'oh' and it dropped with the next things he said to her, "and…happy birthday,"

"You remembered…" she turned to him sharply with shock visible in her eyes,

Naruto only looked at her with the corner of his eyes before they returned to the animal, she knew this because his goggles were perched on his forehead, "I rarely ever forget," he pulled out his right hand from his pocket and presented a small box wrapped up neatly in white and yellow wrapping paper with a tag that read her name, "I got this for you," when she hesitated he turned to her and gently placed the package in her hands with a small smile on his face, "you have the day off," he patted her shoulder, he was much taller than her, and went off into the lab, probably to exit through the front door so he could train. Her hands shook as she looked at the hand-sized box in her hands, then she put her ear to it and shook it gently, it didn't rattle. She gingerly opened the box and found a small sealing scroll inside, she unsealed what was inside and her eyes widened in wonder as a magnificently crafted white wood and silver bow that had delicately drawn snow leopards on the silver edges, doubling up as cutting edges, dropped into her hands that had a letter attached to it. The letter was in Naruto's handwriting and it said:

 _The last one's you owned broke when you fought Nifune, I promise these are just as good. They were crafted by a Kiriagakure blacksmith and carpenter at my request. The wood is gotten from a Sun Beam tree at high noon, when it is its strongest, and the silver is chakra metal I got from Snow country. I have personally placed the durability and regeneration seals on it so it wouldn't break easily and_ _ **if**_ _it does it would snap back together._

 _I hope you like it,_

 _Naruto._

She stashed the note into her short pants pocket and excitedly tested the bow, pulling it as far as it could go and marvelled on how tense but at the same time flexible it was, she bit her bottom lip to contain a giggle and she hurried outside to thank her new master. She found Naruto balanced on a long spike from the earth, holding two long senbon in both of his hands, two behind his knees and going through what she recognised as the kata for his six legged shadow spider taijutsu stance in his stealth uniform besides the jounin flak jacket and his launchers; the young boy noticed her and hopped off the spike. Aoki composed herself and bowed deeply to him,

"Thank you, Naruto-sama,"

"It was no problem," he replied with a fleeting smile, before he pointed out, "You still have the day off though, you deserve it,"

"I...have something to tell you,"

"Yes?" he retrieved the senbon at the back of his knees and slipped them into their pouch, and then he began to idly tinker with his nifty silver launchers,

"No one knows why I challenged Nifune to an honourable fight to the death…I want to tell you the reason," she easily slid the bow across her body and was squeezing the comfortable grip in her hands,

"You don't need to if you don't want to," he said,

"No…I want to tell you, I want to trust you, Naruto-sama," she quietly said and Naruto looked at her for a minute before he silently ushered her into the lab and then to the animal containment area, "but…only if you trust me, Naruto-sama,"

Naruto laughed silently, "the fact I allow you to hold a weapon, the 'Elemental blade' for that matter whenever you stand behind me is proof I trust you. Plus, I got you another weapon," he stood with his back leaning on the railing in front of a chimpanzee enclosure,

She nodded slowly and began her story from the very beginning.

Aoki's first memory was of seeing a black haired woman wearing a Kiriagakure forehead protector hastily dropping her in front of the Iron country orphanage, this was probably when she was two or three years old. The old matron had found her on the steps, crying to the sky with all her worth, with a wrapped package clenched strongly in her fists. The package specified that what it contained should not be directly touched or death would come swiftly. The woman, obligated to take in every orphan brought to her, took Aoki in and found a single note in. The little girl only wore a simple pair of white shorts and pink shirt, inside her pants pocket was a single note that read 'Aoki' which she assumed was her name. The orphans in the Iron country orphanage were all to be raised in the way of the samurai, irrespective of gender, and when a weekly inspection was conducted by the Iron country leader, Bifune, he walked in on a spar between Aoki and another orphan, both making use of boken to fight. The six year old child mercilessly hacked and slashed against her opponents wooden training sword, not giving the slightly older girl any time to create any coherent plan and with a short jab and a poke from behind her the girl was disarmed and lying on the ground, helpless. Aoki went through the motions of sheathing her wooden sword and bowed to her downed opponent, then to her class instructor, then to her matron and finally, after recovering from her shock, to the Iron country leader.

That single match raised the man's interest in her; so far the orphans in Iron country were not very motivated. The small child walked briskly to the edge of the sparring mat where the rest of her classmates were kneeling down and she too joined in, her head was tilted down and her right hand was clenched on her wooden sword, ready to draw at a moment's notice, but still keeping an eye on the new sparring opponents on the mat. She was fully clad in beginners samurai uniform; a pure white kimono that reached close to the ground and was tied at the waist by a white sash, her short black hair was tied together into a short pony tail but it still allowed two fang-like bangs to go down to her chin. After the usual training session she prepared to leave but she had been expressly told by her class instructor to stay back, she remained on her knees and her eyes stayed on the mat until she heard the specific sound of a bow being drawn.

Her head snapped up and her boken slashed upwards, catching an arrow and deflecting it to the ceiling. She spun on her feet and crossed the weapon across her chest as another arrow was sent at her, the arrow clanked against the wooden weapon. She gripped her wooden weapon tightly with both hands and lowered herself into the beginning stance of the samurai fighting style her class was being instructed in. Her coal black eyes looked around the empty room frantically, the dojo was quiet until she heard slow clapping coming from the door,

"At ease, child," Bifune called to her and she again went through the motions of smoothly sheathing her boken when she saw him, "rarely anyone is able to deflect arrows, even though they were not fully drawn," she quietly shrugged, "you, my child, are special. I wish to be your teacher,"

"It would be an honour, Lord Bifune," she said and bowed deeply,

He clapped his hand on her shoulder, his face ever stoic, and said, "go and get your things, you will be staying in my residence,"

She quickly blinked away the tears that filled her eyes and bowed again before she rushed to get the few clothes she had, and collected her package from the head matron.

Training under the Iron country leader alongside his older sons, who were already in their mid-twenties, was very hard. The expectations Bifune piled on her to be able to do things most wouldn't be able to do at her age weighed down on her small shoulders but she didn't complain, not even once, she took her training like a loyal Iron country samurai. Soon enough she was formally adopted into the royal family and witnessed the first time Bifune, the usually stoic man, gave her a small, almost invisible smile. Mifune, the second child to the leader welcomed his adopted sister with open arms and treated the girl with due respect but Nifune, the oldest child remained adamant that she was not welcomed.

When the old Iron country leader was on his death bed from lung infection Aoki was fifteen then the old leader had acclaimed her as the strongest of his children as well as the next leader of Iron country, a title most expected the old man to pass onto Nifune, the oldest child. Aoki took the shock in stride and accepted the mantle, in front of the elders but the ceremony would not be official until the next day. That night though Nifune snuck into her room, using an outlawed ninjutsu to do so (it's a _ninja_ technique, of course it's outlawed), and attempted to rape the fifteen year old girl as revenge for 'stealing' what he _believed_ was his birth right, and was very well close to sealing the deal. He had placed his hand over her mouth and used his free hand to tear off her light sleeping clothes but she had managed to bite his hand and run for dear life. When she had gotten her hand on her weapon, the all elemental katana, from her closet and turned around he was nowhere to be found, the only evidence of his presence was the smell of his thick cologne.

Aoki didn't even wait until sunrise before she raised hell through the royal family residence. Bifune had already passed on so it was Mifune, the second born and more compassionate brother that managed to calm the girl down. Aoki was too ashamed to tell her brother what had happened to her, her pride and honour as a samurai had been soiled, and she was out for blood. Nifune's blood in particular. Despite the known fact that Aoki trusted Mifune she didn't tell him what had happened to her, why she was running through the residence in her training clothes and her katana crackling with energy.

She used her position as next in line to be Leader to declare a death match between her and Nifune to be held immediately. It was after this declaration did Nifune finally rear out his head from his hiding place. At the crack of dawn citizens of Iron country that lived close to the capital assembled at the Grand Iron Arena to witness the fight, which was basically just a wide, open field. The rules were simple, the only survivor won but at the same time the winner would be branded with the title of rogue samurai, he or she was given a full day to flee from Iron country before he or she was placed into the bingo book with all of her money in the duellers bank accounts frozen.

Among Bifune's children Nifune, the oldest, was the weakest when it came to skill and strength, even his loyalty to Iron country was on shaky ground, Mifune was the second strongest in the way of the samurai and Aoki was the strongest in every aspect. Aoki had been dubbed by the people of Iron country as the Dark Angel of the Five Elements because of her black hair and eyes as well as because of her katana blade. The Omnyojin, or the Elemental blade, rumoured to have been forged deep in the mountains of Demon country by a lava release user using the heart of a demon wolf as the blade and its hide as its sheathe. The katana had been stored in Demon country, protected by the elders, until the person it deemed worthy claimed it, but it had been stolen by a cunning woman that wrapped it up in thick leather and vanished off the face of the earth as soon as the alarms rang throughout the demon mountain. How it had come into the possession of Aoki was a mystery but apparently it had already formed a bond with the girl, any other person that touched it would be sucked dry of his chakra and his very essence would leave his body and enter the sword, forever spiralling in the deep, dark silvery abyss that was in the sword, while Aoki would be able to draw strength from the unfortunate soul trapped in her sword. It was remarkable that she had been able to master the katana under the tutelage of Bifune.

Aoki walked into the middle of the arena, decked out in full traditional samurai armour; white torso, thigh and helmet and yellow shoulder guards, shin guards and sandals. Her under clothe was black. Sheathed to her side was her Omnyojin and across her back was a plain wooden bow with a full quiver of arrows. Nifune too walked in from the other side of the arena in full traditional samurai armour that was gold in colour. The people watching at the side lines waited with bated breathe as both fighters stared down at each other, until the appointed future leader of the country rocketed forward and whipped her sword at her opponent, not wanting to give the older man any chance to speak.

Nifune, although the weakest of the three siblings, was also reputed for being the wielder of the Gold katana blade Bifune's father had passed onto Bifune, but the late leader had found the weapon hard to use so he gave it to his son, favouring the use of another mystical katana blade. Nifune was a tall man with bald hair and a brown goatee, usually choosing to wear gold and walk around pompously. He had mastered the use of the gold katana easily; he often called himself The Golden Sibling.

The man used his weapon to block the lethal strike as well as the subsequent hacks from the enraged girl, he slipped past a strike and shoulder checked the smaller girl to the ground, following this with a stomp from sandal clad foot. The girl rolled away and fired a barrage of arrows after she quickly sheathed her blade. The man easily sliced them out of the air and darted at her. Aoki slid away from his downward slice and ducked the head slash, then she used her bow to deflect a sword stroke successfully, using her foot to Spartan kick the big man away. The man quickly recovered and brought his leg up to block a smash from her bow, breaking the wooden weapon and forcing the girl to throw it away so she should dodge a slash from him.

She raised her sheathed katana to block his gold katana and the action pushed her back, breaking the ground apart. When she stopped she half unsheathed her blade and snapped it back in fully, _"Earth pulse,"_ the ground reverberated under her and a small tidal wave made up completely of earth washed towards the older man. Nifune smirked to himself and created a hole in the earth wave as it came at him, leaping through. Aoki met him before his feet hit the ground with an upward slash of her Omnyojin, forcing him to support his katana with both of his hands to block the attack, one behind the blade, another on the handle. She feinted a slice to his side, and he followed her motion but when he saw her correct her motion and go for his shoulder it was too late. White smoke flowed off her katana, channelling wind chakra, and she cut through his armour like butter, lopping off his arm. He slithered away but she stubbornly followed him, wisps of wind coming off her blade ominously as she jabbed it at his stomach, he clanged his sword against hers twice desperately, losing a lot of blood fast. The third jab she went for she commanded the wind wisps to elongate her weapon and this effectively allowed her to slice through his gold armour and into his heart. She harshly pulled out her weapon, making the older man drop his own in shock that she had managed to get to him, and she spun around so she could cut off his head smoothly. His head flew off and rolled on the ground, an eternally horrified expression on his face, while Aoki smoothly sheathed her own katana, her expression grim. She didn't look up at Mifune when he stepped in front of her, he brought out his own katana, the adamantium chakra blade, and smoothly cut a clean line through the Iron country symbol on her helmet, then to the two symbols on her shoulder guards, then he finally sheathed his sword and turned around. Every other member of the country that was present, from the most professional samurai to the lowliest of civilians stood up and turned their backs to her, all were silent.

Aoki swallowed thickly and left the arena so she could pack up her things and leave Iron country. Most speculated that it was the pressure of expectation that had broken her; others thought that the power had gone to her head. All the same no one found out what really pushed Aoki to do what she did.

Life as a missing ninja was hard and she had to kill her conscience so she would be able to get the money for the next meal. She had been contacted by a slavery ring and a heavy price for her services was presented to her, a price she couldn't refuse. The job had forced her to wear clothes she didn't want to wear and even _**speak**_ in a way she herself detested but she desperately needed the money, though she drew the line on selling her body, any advances from the ninja that work for her former slave ring owner boss was met with violent repercussions. This went on for a year until Naruto came…

Naruto listened to her story without interruption and when she stopped, her black hair shadowing her face and sitting on the ground with her knees to her chest, he walked up to her and looked down, "how do you feel now that all that's off your chest?"

She looked up, surprised at what he said, and replied, "I feel…fine,"

"Even though I have been alone for most parts of my early life I have confided my pain into a medium, my journal, and I feel better afterwards. If you feel…burdened by anything don't hesitate to tell me,"

Aoki stood up and straightened her white long sleeved kimono, making sure to adjust her katana and her new bow as well, "thank you for listening, Naruto-sama," he just patted her shoulder and walked past her, "you can also confide in me too…if you want,"

Naruto paused mid-step and tilted his head to the side slightly, "who says I don't already do that?" and he walked out of the animal containment room.

Aoki was left in the room, surrounded by caged animals, and her mind was already made up; she wasn't going to be staying with Naruto Uzumaki just for the money, but also because he treated her like a person, not a weapon of mass destruction or even as a toy to ogle, but as a real, living, breathing person. With that in mind she marched to his office so she could switch into his apartment and take the day off he had insisted she had. Maybe she could spend some of her money buying some weapons; which was what most wouldn't have expected from a girl like her but buying clothes was pretty much a waste of money. Sagi the spider clan elder was able to craft any article of clothing with any known possible fabric in any design imaginable and was still at the best quality; the very clothes she was wearing was from the white spider, so when it came down to clothes there wasn't a dire need for them. She made sure to securely place a brown wig on her head and brown contact lenses on her eyes to safeguard her identity before she left the apartment, her katana and her bow sealed into her wrist.

 **Bio (not a bingo book entry)**

 **Name: Aoki**

 **Moniker(s): Aoki-chan, Dark Angel of the Five Elements, Broken child,**

 **Hair colour: Black**

 **Eye colour: Black**

 **Occupation: Rogue samurai**

 **Affiliation: Iron country (formerly), Fire country Slavery ring (formerly), Kitsugami Drug Company, Naruto Uzumaki,**

 **Parent(s)/Guardian(s)/Relation(s): Bifune of Iron country (adopted father/deceased), Nifune of Iron country (adopted brother/deceased), Mifune of Iron country (adopted brother/alive), and Uzumaki Naruto (adopted brother/boss/alive)**

 **Date of birth: February 23/16 years old (the day she was dropped off at the orphanage)**

 **Weapon(s): Omnyojin, Silver snow leopard bow, tanto, crossbow…pretty much anything that has a sharp point and/or a blade,**

 **Skills: master swordswoman, master hand-to-hand fighter, she is able to use any sharp object as a weapon,**

 **Rank: A**

 **Kekkai genkai: none,**

 **Accomplishments: mastering the Omnyojin, impressing the hard to impress Bifune enough for him to take her under his tutelage, killing Nifune, an A rank samurai in his own right, having been in only one close to death situations (when Naruto poisoned her).**

 **(She's a rouge samurai, which means most traditions she was brought up to believe in don't apply anymore, that includes her perspective of Ninja and ninja art)**

 **Authors note**

 **How was it? Aoki isn't just Naruto's bodyguard, but also his friend.**

 **As a side note, my friend, Kilare T'Suna and I have come up with a lot of story ideas, and I mean a lot of ideas. This being said I will be publishing a few of them, which is the ones I already typed down. He is a creative genius when it comes to ideas; this story is testament to that, so I hope you all give it a chance. I might only have one chapter but hey…whatever…**

 **Don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Next chapter up guys.**

 **Thanks once again for your reviews.**

 **I've got nothing else to say so enjoy the chapter…**

CHAPTER 4

 _Konohagakure_

 _In an alley beside the hospital,_

 _Two hours past midnight,_

Naruto landed on the edge of a two storey building as silent as a spider would and crouched down, staring into the darkness cast by the same building he was on with his goggles glowing a faint orange. He heard a pained grunt and as his eyes cut through the darkness he found Yugao's ANBU, but at the same time not on ANBU duty rather on regular jounin duty, boyfriend Genma clutching his injured ribs with his left hand while he used his right hand to parry away a kunai strike that would have taken off his head, he grit his teeth against the pain and rolled backwards when the person swung his leg at him. The attacker, a bandage wrapped man with a Suna forehead protector, spun his kunai by the ring and just before Genma could right himself he threw the kunai with deadly accuracy. Naruto cocked his head to the side and levelled his launchers with the thrown projectile, mentally calculating the speed, weight, wind change, height from the ground and various other variables before he shot a two inch long senbon to the flying weapon, going through the air in dramatic slow motion and he shot out another senbon a little bit under the first. The first senbon clanged against the kunai's pointed tip and forced it downward, sticking it into the ground diagonally, while the second needle jammed through the ring on its handle and nailed itself into the ground.

Baki cursed at his luck and looked up at where the thrower of the senbon was located; he spied Naruto, now just sitting on the edge of the building , and ran up the wall to engage him. Time ran to a crawl as Naruto made use of the 'eyes' on his forehead to mentally calculate various variables concerning the Suna jounin before he fired a single senbon that whistled lightly through the air and jammed into the Sand jounin's shoulder with much more force than it was supposed to, this fact threw off the man's concentration and his legs slipped off the wall, making him fall off, Naruto though had fired two more combat medical needles and a net spread out under Baki that caught him, sticking him to place. Naruto leaped off the building and dropped lightly on the net, his steps were light and fast as he sharply walked to the Suna ninja on the same net that prevented the captured man from moving. He raised an amused eyebrow when Baki struggled against the net, then he whipped out a senbon that oozed with a mysterious blue liquid and threw it before Baki could make use of a seal-less jutsu. The needle flew through the air and sliced right past Baki, passing through the holes on the net and nailing Genma's chest when the man began his struggle to his feet; he was pushed off his feet and summarily knocked out.

A slow smirk spread on Naruto's face as he bent down on his knees to looked at Baki, he shook his head in exasperation and jammed a syringe filled with a golden substance into Baki's neck, freezing his whole body, "I'm going to ask this only once, Suna shinobi; why did you attack my colleague?" at his stubborn hesitation Naruto jammed another syringe, next to the syringe that was still on Baki's neck, this time filled with a thin, white substance, "it's no use fighting that one, I made it myself the same drug Konoha use to fight the fear of heights…but my version…" he poked the woozy man's forehead and he was out like a light, before he tapped the man's cheek and his eyes opened again, glazed white over his black pupils, "more or less hypnotizes you. Now, answer my question,"

"I was meeting an informant from Sound…he walked in on us…he was a threat to our plans…" Baki said slowly,

"Oh, the invasion," Naruto stated quietly and Baki slowly nodded, his eyes wide with shock, "I have a friend in Sound that keeps me informed, don't worry, I'm with you guys," he pulled out both syringes from his neck and after a sharp slap across the older man's face he was snapped out of his hypnotized daze. He stood up a pulled a single thread on the net he was on and it was immediately sucked back into his sliver launchers,

"You're with us…?" Baki said sceptically,

"If I wasn't I would have taken you to the Hokage by now," the boy responded as he dropped down beside his knocked out comrade,

"If you're one of us…kill him,"

"I don't have to prove anything to you, Suna shinobi. If you _think_ you can attack me, go ahead, I'll kill you and you _know_ I can do that," he said as he pulled out the senbon lodged into Genma's chest and began attending to his broken ribs, "now leave before he wakes up,"

"This isn't over," Baki growled quietly and frowned when Naruto snorted, still not looking at him,

"Uh huh, sure it isn't," he used his teeth to pull off a cover over a syringe and gently slid it into the knocked out man's neck, injecting the contents of the needle into the man. Baki clenched his fist but disappeared in a sand shunshin, just as Genma's eyes fluttered open,

"What…happened…?" he asked as his eyes locked on Naruto's goggle protected own,

"You slipped off that building," he pointed to the one he was formerly crouched on, "you should be more careful," he pulled out his needle and helped the older man up,

"That…doesn't sound right…"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _One month later,_

 _Konohagakure,_

 _Hokage's office,_

Sarutobi looked at the gathered jounin and special jounin that now filled his office with grim eyes as he sat on his desk, "there is troubling news; Jiraiya's spy network have reported that there is about to be a full scale invasion on our village by Sound and Sand," the few jounin present furrowed their eyebrows questionably, "we don't know when but we can only assume it's going to happen during or after today's tournament,"

Kakashi looked up from his porn novel, leaning on the wall to the far left and next to Might Gai, "did he say _how_ the invasion would start?"

"Sadly no, but that should make us more careful," he began handing out mission specs to each jounin in the room, "but we have noticed small encampments of Sound and Sand shinobi just outside of konoha's borders, our primary focus now is keeping them away and neutralizing those already inside our village, we don't want them to know we're onto them,"

Yugao nodded and said, "You want them to think they still have the element of surprise,"

"Exactly. Now, the one tails jinchuriki will probably be their trump card so a seal master should be placed to contain him if he begins his rampage," he waved his hand to the large window Naruto and Yugao were sitting on and Jiriaya leaped in with his arms crossed, his face showed that he was all business, "Jiriaya can do that and when he is done he will join those defending the wall, led by, Nara Shikaku, Akimichi Chouza, Uzuki Yugao and Uzumaki Naruto," here the old man glared lightly at Naruto, "use your summons if they're too many," Naruto sent a silent two fingered salute as his eyes skimmed his mission specs, Anko chuckled a little under her breathe and the boy shook his head in exasperation, "there will, of course, be casualties so I have taken the liberty of bringing in someone we can depend on to handle that," he waved to the door and all turned as the door opened.

In walked Tsunade Senju. Shizune Kato opted to stay outside with the female secretary. The woman looked around the room silently, with her own arms crossed, until her eyes fell on Naruto. The boy wasn't even looking at her, he was still busy sifting through his bulky mission specs while idly twirling a senbon. The Senju looked back at her sensei and the man continued, amid the shocked murmurs some of his jounin were making,

"She will be in charge of the medic ninja unit as well as provide support for those within the walls," the blonde woman nodded, "all leave from duty has been cancelled and those that were on long term missions have been called back, konoha's protection is most important,"

"I have a question," a voice said from the window, the gathered jounin, as well as Jiriaya and Tsunade, looked at the source and Naruto continued after the Sandaime's prompting nod, "are we to kill the current Kazekage's children?" his shoulder was leaned to the side and his thick mission specs was propped on his chest, "if they decide to attack, of course,"

"Even though that is not part of your mission parameter…no, you do not kill them, make sure they stay alive," the jounin nodded, "ANBU will provide support for those fighting inside and the Inuzuka, Aburame and Hyuuga clan members will provide border support, like I said, Shikaku, Chouza, Yugao and Naruto are in charge,"

"Hai, Hokage-sama," they said, the ominous fact that Tsunade had been called back from her travelling retirement loomed over everyone present,

"Your priority is to protect the civilians, so if you have to kill each and every invader to do so then go ahead," the man slowly looked over his gathered jounin,

"Do we know who the leader of Sound is?" Naruto asked again but this time it was Jiriaya that answered,

"No," the man shook his head, "leadership in that village is still a mystery,"

"Freaking perfect," the blonde boy said as he chuckled shortly, most looked at him questionably and he said, "We need to cut the leader down if we want to subdue them,"

"We can assume that the Kazekage will be leading in the Sound leader's steed," Jiriaya sharply replied, "unless this leader from Hidden Sound would show up during the invasion,"

"Besides that," Sarutobi continued as he propped his elbows on his desk, "if on the occasion I am killed I have already discussed with Tsunade that she will be the Godaime," the woman begrudgingly agreed to what he said, "I want our response to be a statement to anyone else that would want to invade Konoha in the future; our village will forever be strong," he stood up and most of the jounin snapped to attention, "dismissed," what was written in every mission specs was that the jounin were to stay in the arena with some chunin and some chunin shadow clones posing as the chunin posted to the walls, this was to protect the competitors and the civilian populace.

The ninja began to leave the office and as per norm Naruto and Yugao waited for the flood of top class shinobi to reduce before they stood up, and began walking to the door. Tsunade, who stood aside for the jounin to walk past, closed the door after them to talk with her sensei and her spy master team mate. The toad sage stepped off the window and stood in front of his Hokage as well. The woman spoke up first,

"Something's up with that kid,"

The old man agreed, "Naruto has always been knowledgeable of a number of things, far more than he makes us aware of,"

"Then why was he in this meeting?" she asked,

"Because he is still a valuable asset to this village," he threw Naruto's file to his female student. It had all they knew about Naruto; he was a spider summoner, a scientist, a genius, a detective, an exceptional spy and an adaptive fighter. All the missions he had gone on, fifty seven A rank, ten B rank and one C rank were completed with distinction, the clients even gave positive reviews on his performance. The high ranked missions overshadowed the lower ranked ones because he mostly performed missing ninja capture, special artefact recovery, total ninja encampment wipe out, highly dangerous thefts as well as covering his tracks, murder and framing someone else and other missions. The B ranks were mostly just important messages to other villages and escorting the Fire Daimyo and his daughter (along with the guardians) to wherever they were going. The C rank was when he helped out in the hospital by finding a rare herb that grew primarily in Hidden Chill.

Yugao had added in her own opinions to the file that Naruto never wasted any movement and never delayed in making a crucial decision, shooting senbon with killer precision and making use of his outstanding taijutsu form to take down people much larger than him. It listed all the jutsu they knew the boy was able to use and they consisted of mostly A and B rank, some that revolved around his summons and others that could be found in the A rank section of the library, nothing they didn't know but things they didn't expect a thirteen and a half year old boy to be able to perform. The file speculated that he was able to use a high amount of his Kyuubi chakra but so far they hadn't seen him do it. It also speculated that his sensory ability was much higher than an average sensors own, as seen when he was able to tell who from who without looking during a mission to Swamp country.

Tsunade whistled, impressed, "he sure has some moves," she turned to the last page and it showed some of the pictures taken by a Hyuuga hunter ninja that accompanied Naruto on a mission; Naruto had smashed his foot, the sole protected by a thick material, against a man's face in a perfect display of a flying kick. The bigger man's arms and legs were tied together by glistening ninja wire and the next picture showed the spray of blood from his mouth as he fell. Another showed the blonde spider summoner dropping onto an unsuspecting party that comprised of a popular drug dealer and his security entourage, the boy was not clearly seen in the shadows but they could notice the faint orange glow his goggles made. The mission report by the hunter ninja said he had silently dropped down in the middle of the entourage, behind the drug dealer, and with six quick movements shot down the security team with some thrown kunai, knocked the man out and took him back to Konoha on his shoulder. For all intent and purposes, the file described Naruto as a model shinobi. The last thing on the file talked about the suspicion that Naruto was connected to Kitsugami drug Company, citing that the logo was a spider skeleton with nine legs but that was as far as they had could go, they couldn't bring Naruto in for questioning since he was an expert liar and the logo might also be a coincidence; merely a Kyuubi fan as well as a spider fan. Yugao and Naruto weren't aware of this addition.

The Hokage gently lit his pipe and blew out some smoke from his nose, "I am certain that he has something in mind on how to take down anyone he goes up against, even someone he hasn't met before,"

"I'll keep an eye on him," Tsunade said as she snapped Naruto's file closed,

"Good, keep me posted," his loyal students nodded and left his office,

Meanwhile with Naruto, the boy had marched to the west gate, his post until the invasion began, and when his senses told him that no one else was present he flipped through a small chain of hand seals, _"Summoning jutsu,"_ a poof of smoke on his hand later and a pitch black spider with the number three on his bulbous behind was in his hand,

" **Naruto-sama,"** the small spider greeted in a deep, gravelly voice,

"I want you to go to the snake summoning realm and tell them that Konoha is onto their summoner, they should relay the message to her,"

" **At once, Naruto-sama,"** the spider said as it disappeared in another puff of smoke. The spider summons were the only summons that the snakes had officially allowed contact with on their summoning realm, at the moment there were both snakes and spiders on both realms, something most believed could never be possible. Some chunin then slipped into the room, making sure to salute Naruto, and took posts outside the door. He turned to the now assembled Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Aburame that had been posted to his side of konoha's wall that looked at him expectantly, standing outside the sentry post Naruto was seated in. He looked over them and spoke,

"I want every Aburame to focus on staying back and providing back support, advisably with their kakaichu. Hyuuga are our frontline fighters, you face them head on and Inuzuka come in from the sides as support. I want the invaders contained to the very last one. I can make traps very quickly so don't worry about going against too many people," they nodded, aware that Naruto was pretty much a trap master, "the Sandaime orders that you kill if you don't have an option, so no holding back or underestimating anyone," a vital part of being a jounin wasn't to lead, but rather to be the cool head that makes crucial decisions; he merely passed his decision to his subordinates.

"Hai, Naruto-senpai,"

Three hours later and his goggles shone a faint red and an explosion was felt from the chunin exams arena, there was a war cry from deep in the forest and Naruto got up from his reclined position in the sentry post, the clan members around the box stood up abruptly, "look alive," he placed on his head piece and leaped out of the box, and ran in, "don't forget the plan!"

The Hyuuga charged in behind him and the Inuzuka fanned out to the sides while the Aburame remained at the back, ready to throw clan jutsu as support. Two long senbon clicked into place on Naruto's launchers, drawing thin lines on the ground as he ran to the invaders. The Sound and Sand shinobi ran back to him and the boy leaped over the first wave and began slashing at the shinobi behind them, stabbing and hacking anyone that stood in front of him. As a large, lumbering ninja came at him he whipped out a senbon from a pouch at his back and stabbed it into the man's leg, flowing around him and smoothly cutting behind his knees. As the man fell down kakaichu descended down on him and ate him to the bone. The invaders began to taper out and Naruto abruptly stopped, reaching out with his senses before he silently motioned to his right to the Inuzuka there. The shinobi burst from the forest and they flooded to the dog clan members, the Aburame at the back yelled out as one a clan jutsu and kakaichu shaped as fists rained down on them. Just them there were numerous massive plumes of chakra smoke in the forest and finally silence, the invaders were cut down to the last one and the Konoha ninja waited for the new threat.

It was silent.

Foreboding settled in the Hyuugas as they looked ahead with their byakugan blazing, that was when a generic looking pale eyed clan member jumped back quickly, away from the lightning fast bite a snake summons had sent from seemingly out of nowhere. Naruto yelled,

"Hyuuga, fall back!" the ninja diligently leaped back and Naruto commanded the bug using clan to charge, the Inuzuka were to stay where they were to cut down any more human invader when they came. The boy rolled aside from a lightning fast bite and jammed an explosive tag through the snakes head, flipping away numerous times to dodge the explosion. He shot out his right pincer senbon and it lodged under snakes chin, he swung onto its head and quickly dislodged his needle before he placed another explosive tag on the snakes head, making sure to leap onto another snake as it exploded. He continued leaping from one snake to another, blowing up their heads, until he realized that the summons were getting too many. The Aburame, still yet to suffer any casualty, were being pushed back, "Inuzuka, come from the sides, stay sharp," he said into his head piece and his command was diligently obeyed, "Hyuuga, support from behind them,

"But that will leave the gate open," a person responded,

"I know what I'm doing," Naruto grunted as he spun away from a snake that had lunged at him, he spun in the air quickly and wind fused shuriken flew out of the mini tornado that covered him, peppering the snakes around him, slicing through the hordes around him,

"Hai, senpai," the person replied. The Hyuuga began throwing _'Gale palms', 'Wind palm vacuums'_ and made use of _'Protection of the revolving heavens'_ over the dog clan as defence while the Inuzuka threw _'Drilling fangs'_ and _'Fang over fangs'_ as attacks while they were already in their _'man-beast clone technique'_.

He then ordered the Aburame to fan out as he flipped through some hand seals, _"Summoning jutsu: Venomous clay spiders,"_ he slapped his palm on the ground and a complex summoning seal matrix spread around him, then out of the ground in front of the gate giant brown spider summons erupted and immediately leaped at the snakes, sinking their teeth in them, some being broken with sharp slaps from their tails. They began flooding out of the ground and overwhelming the giant snake summons, this released pressure off the human fighters and Naruto, watching as the corroding venom in the summons destroyed the afflicted snakes. The brown spiders _ate_ through the snakes to the last one before Naruto allowed them to leave, their bellies full. Naruto sighed in relief and rubbed his eyes, "any casualties?" the line crackled silently, the three clans looked at their young captain with much more respect, as the leaders of the respective clans reported back,

"Three injured Aburame, four Inuzuka and one Hyuuga. Nothing life threatening, senpai," a female Aburame reported,

"Good, can you see any more invaders coming?"

"No one for miles ahead of us, senpai," a male Hyuuga clan member reported,

"Great, check around for any survivors and contain them. Let's clean up this mess," he used his toes to idly kick an arm that was very much far away from the owner's body, walking back to the sentry box. They might have known Naruto, being the Kyuubi container, but they were also knew of his short rise into the jounin rank as well as his skills, it was very easy to look past his age and refer to him as their 'senpai',

The assembled members, who were around him, saluted and began performing what he had commanded. He reclined in a chair there and set a radio on his lap, making sure to plug in his head set,

"Sector eleven reporting, all invaders have been dealt with, awaiting orders," he listened in for the response patiently for two minutes,

"Control tower here, sector eleven, are you certain all invaders have been neutralized?"

"Ninety nine point nine per cent sure, control tower," Naruto reported back,

"Sector eleven, you are to send support to sector seven," the west gate where Chouza Akimichi was leading the defence. This was because the bulk of the invaders were there since Hidden Sound was in that general location.

"Understood," he waved for their attention and sent over half of each clan member present, before he spoke into the radio, "control tower, how is the fight in sector one?" the chunin exam arena,

"Sector eleven, the one tails holder has been contained by Jiriaya-sama,"

"And the Hokage…?"

"...standby," there was a long pause before a response came, "the Hokage has been poisoned…they're fleeing,"

Naruto stifled his relieved sigh, "should I give chase?" he might have been very young for his age but he was very good at catching up and capturing people.

"No, maintain your position, sector eleven, the Hokage's life is our priority now,"

"Understood,"

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't survive the fatal poison Orochimara had given him. His burial was a solemn affair but immediately after Tsunade Senju had been handed the mantle of Hokage. The first thing she did was begin her investigation on who had been supplying the hospital with illegal, hard to get drugs.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _The Yellow flower restaurant,_

 _Konohagakure,_

 _A week after the failed invasion,_

Light violins played through hidden speakers as Kitsugami Gumo sat down on at his table and smoothed over his purple pin stripped suit with his hands, behind him Aoki stood at the ready to draw her weapon, her eyes roved over everyone in the restaurant suspiciously. The teenage swordswoman was wearing pure white face paint with her lips painted in a small pouty red circle, and her eyelids were hooded with red, cat-like paint that drew the corner of her eyes close to her ear stylishly. The girl's boss still had his wide brimmed hat casting a shadow over his whole face, he set his hands on his lap and looked around curiously for the new crime lord he had been scheduled to meet with, and he hated tardiness.

A waitress walked up to his table and began pouring water he had initially ordered into a glass cup, he noticed her hands were shaking. He looked at her curiously and when she was about to leave he grabbed her arm sharply and she froze. She slowly turned back to him and he saw what he was looking for in her eyes; undiluted fear. He gently motioned for her to come to him and he slipped a finger sized square of paper filled with exactly five thousand ryu into her hand, closing it before she could reject his money since she knew what was inside. Beneath his hat he smiled at her, she caught the faint outline of it and he whispered to her,

"Why don't you take a break, sweet heart, you look tired," he patted her closed fist gently and she gratefully bowed low to him, and ran off. Kitsugami looked over his shoulder to his feminine war paint wearing bodyguard and they both shared a knowing look. They had been, coincidentally, given a table at the very centre of the restaurant and there just so happened to be well built men and women that wined and dined on the tables around him. He caught some send him quick looks from the corner of his eyes. The major drug producer nodded imperceptivity and Aoki rolled her neck, the mysterious man slowly stood up and all the noise in the restaurant fell, silent as a graveyard.

He stood up straight and waved for the bartender, who was also shaking like a leaf, to leave as well. The old man too bowed deeply to him in appreciation, this time doing so four times before he ran out of the restaurant, no one barred his way. Kitsugami cleared his throat and said,

"Before we begin," all the people paid attention to what he was about to say, a slow, twisted smirk spread on the speakers face under his hat, he looked around, "is there anyone that would like to leave…?" the music was smooth and calm. The people then realized that he was already onto them and they stood up, pulling out various weapons from under their tables, some even threw off their formal clothes in favour of wearing standard Konoha shinobi uniform. The door to the restaurant was slammed shut and two burly Inuzuka stood guard there, under disguise as bouncers. The armed Konoha shinobi began getting into ready positions around Kitsugami, "fine then. Let's begin,"

Kitsugami gently took off his quality tailored suit to show he had on a long sleeved black shirt with purple suspenders connected to his pants, dropping his suit coat onto his chair; the music blasting from the hidden speakers began to increase tempo. Aoki half pulled out her katana and got into a ready stance as well, her back to her boss and his back to her.

It was obvious Kitsugami wouldn't come in without a fight so the jounin didn't bother stating for him to stand down; Kitsugami got into a fighting stance most would say was meant for street fighters, making sure to roll up his sleeves neatly and clenched his gloved hands tightly. His feet were clad in comfortable boots, shinobi boots, so he didn't need to worry about moving around swiftly.

His right hand motioned for the shinobi to come at him, "well what are you waiting for? Come on!"

And the all-out fight began as the classical violin and piano music started a hectic and rushed rendition, typical for most fight scenes.

Two shinobi first rushed to the hat wearing man and he flowed under them smoothly, grabbed the shirt of the man passing his right and threw him into the man passing his left, quickly sidestepping a grab for his shoulder and with a snap kick he nailed the person's ear, careening the victim across the restaurant. He leaped over a sword stroke and dropped down on the weapon, breaking it in half but before his feet could full touch the ground he smashed his foot on the user's chest, throwing him into two more attackers and destabilizing them. His arms reached to his left and grabbed a tanto from coming down at him, the woman that had used the weapon stared at him with shocked wide eyes before he pulled the weapon out of her grasp and stabbed it into her side, shoving her to into some Konoha ninja.

Aoki clanged her sword to hold off three katana blades, gritting her teeth under the combined weight before she snapped her right leg to the right and nailed a man that had wanted to ambush her on his forehead, leaving a visible imprint. Her raised leg then stepped on her dropped sheath and she quickly caught it with her right hand, having to release it from her katana and duck under their swings. She grabbed her sheath from the air and smashed it against a sword wielding man's cheek, spinning on her heel and smashing it against another person's cheek, audibly shattering their cheek bones. The people began looking at her wearily, surrounding her and raised their swords at the ready; she merely smirked and bent down in an advanced defensive stance Bifune had taught her, her katana held in a reverse grip to her side and her sheath over her chest. An invisible switch was flipped and they charged.

Kitsugami raised his forearm to block a tanto, shocking the person that it spark a little, before the mysterious man spun on his heels and used his heel to bring the sword wielder down with a painful thwack against his shoulder. He flexed his fingers and smashed the ground as a shinobi attempted to pull his legs into the ground. The next person that came at him yelled a battle cry and brought a war hammer down on him, Kitsugami flowed away from the lethal blow and flipped over the heavy weapon, away from a sickle slice from another person. He used his left hand to hold the heavy war hammer and snap kicked the person across his face, following this up by hefting the weapon above his head and bringing it down on the sickle wielders shoulder, breaking it. He threw his new weapon to a cluster of Konoha ninjas, sceptical that they were still able to overwhelm Kitsugami. That was until a hat wearing jounin reached forward and grabbed the head of the hammer safely in his hand, he dropped the heavy weapon and it thudded on the ground. The person walked forward and threw off his hat, revealing that he was Hatake Kakashi.

"I was wondering when you'd come out,"

"I was testing out the waters," Kakashi shrugged as he took off the formal suit, showing all he had his jounin uniform underneath, the copy ninja cocked his head to his hat wearing opponent, "by any chance will me showing up convince you to give up? My guys _were_ giving you a tough time,"

Kitsugami laughed, "These guys? Nah, nah, I didn't even break a sweat," he bounced on the balls of his feet and motioned for Kakashi to come at him, "now show me what you've got, copy ninja,"

"Your funeral," the masked shinobi mumbled as he ran to the confident Kitsugami.

The A rank rouge samurai blazed under a female shinobi and sliced the back of her head, lopping her head off cleanly. She didn't stop there; she jabbed her sheath at a male katana user and followed up with a spinning kick to his face, he crumbled to the ground bonelessly. The woman blew away some hair that blocked her right eye and her eyes settled on a purple haired katana user that had commanded the other katana users to stop. Yugao walked forward, her katana pointing downwards and her sheath held in a reverse grip.

The woman looked at the dead, dying and severely injured shinobi around the war paint wearing samurai, shinobi that were under her and Kakashi's joint command and she glared at the other katana user "you will not leave this building alive," Yugao said lowly,

"If I die it would be an honourable death in the service of my master," Aoki replied as she put her katana holding fist to her chest and went back into her former stance,

"Your 'master' will be tried and probably executed, your life would have been a waste," ever so slowly Yugao got into her favoured kenjutsu stance and so did Aoki,

"We'll see," and they clashed swords against each other, sparks flew as lethal steel met lethal steel.

Kakashi easily parried a jab to his stomach with his forearm protector and went for a palm strike to his opponent's chest, but the man slapped his attack away, unexpectedly throwing the copy ninja back to the memory of Naruto slapping his hand away from his goggles during the boy's re-evaluation. The fight went on with both fighters being on equal level until he caught a hole in Kitsugami's stance; he swung his arm and smashed it against the drug dealer's chest, throwing him across the restaurant and into a wall. He heard a faint hissing and his eye widened in alarm as he saw explosive tags multiplying and creeping up his arm, he sealessly switch with a shadow clone and the clone bolted to the door, the guards parted way immediately and just as the clone leaped into the sky it exploded. The masked man sighed in relief and looked at his opponent but didn't find him, when he looked at the exit he saw the Inuzuka lying on the ground with their heads caved in. He cursed and turned to Yugao's fight with her own opponent; the ANBU captain slipped past Aoki's sideways swing and jabbed her katana through her stomach, the samurai immediately burst into chakra smoke.

"Shit, after them!" Yugao yelled and the remaining living ninja, severely cut down in number and strength, surged out of the restaurant and after the two.

With the two runaway underworld dealers, Naruto was busy trying to ignore Aoki's tittering laughs,

"I told you so,"

"Yeah, whatever,"

She relished in his sour mood, as well as the fact that he had admitted he was wrong, "oh sweet kami that felt good,"

"Don't get used to it," Naruto grunted as the two powered through the empty streets of Konoha, he could sense the ninja running behind him but it was too late to sense the wind jutsu Kakashi had used,

" _Wind release: Wind vacuums,"_ from his mouth he blew out sharp spike of wind at the mysterious drug dealers unprotected back and they were summarily dodged but a stray gust blew his wide brimmed hat off. His blonde hair reflected in the moonlight and Yugao stumbled, Kakashi too, and Naruto stopped running. He turned to the crowd of ninja and clenched his fist; Aoki pulled his hand hurriedly and encouraged him to keep running. He did so and the stunned gathering of shinobi watched on, until a nameless chunin continued giving chase, this snapped the others out of their surprised daze and they continued chasing the revealed Kitsugami Gumo, Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto shouldered through the door and quickly switched into his lab, Aoki following through immediately after him and the Uzumaki summoned hundreds of clones to seal up every single thing in the lab, he wasn't worried about the things he had in his apartment since he mostly slept and cooked in his lab, Aoki as well. An alarm on the lab began blaring as an entire wall of his apartment was destroyed, Kakashi sniffed around, his lone eye steeled in determination to bring back the once promising tokubetsu jounin to justice. He followed his nose to the bathroom and uncovered the switch seal there, knowing that he wouldn't be able to switch to Naruto's location unless another person just so happens to want to switch into the apartment. He squeezed the kunai in his right hand tightly and stabbed the wall beside the mirror, it all made sense now; he had once gambled with Kitsugami before, when the man was an ordinary person, and after he had lost another game of cards the man had asked him to see his summoning scroll. There was no such thing as spider summons at the time and coincidentally Naruto came out as a summoner four years later,

"I need a seal master!" he yelled to the ninja behind him and a chunin ran to the Hokage's office, hoping to find Jiriaya of the Sannin. Yugao was busy beating herself up; if she had gotten her shit together and actually approached Naruto when he was younger he might not have gone down this road, she could have at least gotten him some glasses for his eyes, something she knew about very well. She couldn't blame Orochimara, whether the rouge Sannin had brainwashed Naruto into this path or not, the woman had actually cared for Naruto in more ways than she could ever think of.

The toad sage pushed through the shinobi gather in Naruto's bathroom and mutely examined the seal; he channelled in some chakra and sharply pulled his hand away when the seal crackled with electricity. He chuckled to himself and slapped his a scroll on the seal, an alternate version Naruto had used to freeze the alarms just before he stole the forbidden scroll, and the mirror rippled after that, "it's open," he simply said as he jumped through the rippling mirror and the waves of shinobi followed after him.

Naruto had long since finished sealing all of his equipment and clothes and storing them into a backpack which he also in turn stored in a seal next to his heart. He was running as fast as he could out of the warehouse just after he heard his office door burst open, shattering into splinters. Aoki ran beside him with her own backpack secured on her back. Naruto made sure to shield her and himself from an explosive tag ninja had thrown at them that thunked into a tree trunk, he waved her concerns away. He heard some growling behind him and he spied some dog summons catching up to him, a thud far in front of him and he was made aware of three samurai armour wearing toads landing and preparing to catch him. As he ploughed through a few hand seals Aoki pulled out her legendary sword halfway and snapped it back in,

" _Earth: pulse!"_ the ground rose and fell after her in concentric circles and the dog summons were thrown away, this was when Naruto finished his hand seals,

" _Summoning jutsu!"_ multiple large bursts of chakra happened behind and in front of him and different coloured spiders ran out of the plumes, all wearing battle armour on their legs and heads. They rammed their helmet protected heads against the sword bearing toads as the toads brought down their weapons. Naruto and Aoki ran past when the spiders had created an opening for him and his friend. 

The gate keepers at the north gate looked at him and his friend curiously as they ran up but when they spied Jiriaya giving chase, frantically yelling for them to hold them down, it was too late; a senbon stuck out of each of their necks. As they exited the gates five shinobi wearing Sound forehead protectors ran beside him in a five pointed formation,

"What took you so long, Naruto-sama?" a pale, unhealthy looking man said,

"I was busy, who are you?"

"Your godmother sent us here three days ago to make sure your journey to Sound is safe," another shinobi said, he had another head sticking out of his back, Naruto shook that fact off and continued running, hearing the chaos his spiders were making,

"So he's the fuck face we've been waiting for?"

"Mind your language," Naruto couldn't help but snap this, "you can cuss all you want to your friends but refrain from doing so to me," he spun around and levelled his senbon launchers on some Inuzuka that had managed to get past the spiders and were giving chase, the needles whistled out of his silver launchers and exploded on the ground when they stepped on them, going too fast to dodge them. The blue fire billowed high into the sky and Naruto whirled around, following his escorts to where they were taking him. The blonde spider summoner then bit his thumb and pulled up his left sleeve to reveal a summoning seal matrix, he smeared the blood on it and muttered, _"Summoning jutsu: Mizuki beast,"_ He leaped over the large plume of smoke that exploded in front of him and shouted to the growling monster hidden in the smoke, still running to hidden sound, "hold them off,"

"Yes…Naruto-sama," a deep voice snarled and a hulking mass sped out of the smoke, faster than the others could anticipate. Not even three seconds later there was a monstrous roar and pained screams, then the roar turned into maniacal laughs and deep crazed chuckles, it was now obvious Naruto was pulling out all the stops to avoid capture,

The sound four and Kimimaro all wondered what sort of evil creation Naruto had unleashed on the poor Konoha ninjas, "He's right Tayuya," Kimimaro muttered, wincing a little when he heard a thick cracking sound with another scream coming before it, the scream was abruptly cut short, "he is Lady Orochimara's godson, the same guy she said was able to keep up with her when they last fought,"

"…whatever," she huffed sourly,

Naruto felt his spider get killed and that was when more toads and dogs flooded after him. Kimimaro shot bone drills at them from his fingers and the silent fifth member of the Sound Four threw a clay bomb over his shoulder and chuckled darkly when he heard the toad victims give pained grunts.

The dense trees cleared out and this allowed Naruto to summon another spider, _"Summoning jutsu: Clay venomous spiders,"_ the ground in front of them erupted and out crawled three clay spider summons, "get on," he leaped onto a clay spider and when Aoki touched down beside him he mentally commanded it to go in the general direction they had originally been going. They all heard a loud _boing_ and a giant toad dropped before them, Jiriaya, Kakashi and Yugao standing on its head. Naruto cursed to himself and mentally commanded the spiders to fan out, in different directions. The three shinobi jumped down to him and the massive summons began distracting the guards.

Jiriaya dropped straight through the clay spiders head, flinging Naruto and Aoki away. The duo righted themselves in the air dextrously and landed on their feet smoothly. The stare down was epic, until Yugao finally spoke,

"Come back peacefully, Naruto, maybe…maybe Hokage-sama would go easy on you,"

"You should listen to her, that's some really good advice right there," Jiriaya grunted, standing tall and intimidating under the illuminating moon,

"I think I'll pass on that," Naruto replied and got into his favoured four legged shadow spider stance,

"What went wrong, Naruto?" the purple haired woman whispered and Naruto caught it, the wind speed increased slightly,

"Becoming a shinobi…that's where I went wrong,"

"But…but why drugs kid…?" Kakashi said,

"You might not believe me but my company has been helping millions of people who have problems affording drugs these days, I've saved millions of families and dozens of Hidden villages from extinction with my drugs. The illegal stuff happened before I expanded my clientele. Can you honestly tell me that what I have done to the medicine world isn't vital, isn't ground breaking?" it wasn't like Naruto tested the illegal drugs on himself…that was meant for others to test on…

"You have done some great work, Naruto, but what you did before these things could happen…" Yugao trailed off, "you experimented on people, you killed, you kidnapped and you did it without remorse,"

"They were all dregs of the society; no one would miss them,"

"It doesn't make it any less evil!" Jiriaya shouted, "your just like Orochimara," he hoped that would make the boy feel even a little remorse but rather Naruto brightened up and flashed a grin at him, exposing his freakishly serrated spider teeth to them to see even under the moonlight,

"Thank you, Jiriaya, and I'm sure my godmother would be glad too,"

"Your parents would be disappointed in you," Kakashi shouted,

"They lost all right of being 'proud of me' the moment they died, I don't think you've noticed but I've been alone for a long time and they didn't even leave me a single letter, or even a picture!" Naruto yelled, finally losing composure after his parents had been mentioned. He had not received his inheritance because the estate had been flattened by a tail from the Kyuubi and the massive wells of money in the joint Namikaze-Uzumaki account had been slowly drained dry over the years by the civilian council as well as some few select shinobi, "as far as I know the only parent I have is my Orochimara, she's cared, that's all that matters," he didn't flinch when a loud thud hit the ground, destroying a clay spider and scattering the Sound ninja trying to fight the toad,

"Is this about love and care? Get over yourself; you're not the only person that had to grow up alone,"

"Try growing up half blind and having to look through the trash for _food_ , when you know how that feels you'll understand," frankly speaking, the toad sage had lived a good early life, even as an orphan. "The people my parents entitled to look after me failed and it was only my godmother that went above and beyond, just for me. You should all be glad I don't hold any grudges…"

The man didn't have a good come back, he had already reconciled with himself the fact that he was a terrible godfather, he had hoped that he could bond with Naruto over training the Kyuubi, hoping that Naruto would look up to him but that was never the case. He got into the toad kata stance, "enough talk,"  
"Yeah…enough talking," Naruto muttered and flipped through three hand seals as the three ran to him, _"Web bomb: level ten!"_ a sparkling white orb began growing between his palms and when it was roughly the size of a beach ball he smashed it onto the ground, Aoki making sure to stand behind him away from the blast; she was very familiar with the attack, this would be the first time the three ninjas would see it.

The effect of this was the ball exploding and covering all in thick, heavy and quickly drying white webs, even the toad had to leap aside. There were finger nail sized spiders with beeping brown and green behinds that moved sluggishly over the webs, expanding it and at the same time fortifying it; when Jiraiya thought he could break out his hole was smoothed over, it would last an hour. Naruto shook the webs off easily and pulled Aoki out, summoning clones to pull the Sound Four and Kimimaro out too. The toad touched back down on the web and it solidified around his feet, making him immobile. He spared a looked at the trapped ninja, and ran off to Hidden Sound.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Ray…Jay," a smooth voice chirped as she sauntered through the front door of the Scarlett Pleasure Brothel, the woman had a beautiful tan with purple lipstick and dark eye shadow painted on her face, she wore flowing black formal dress and a long gold necklace around her neck. She also had hoop earrings and black high heels. She hopped onto the scrubbed down counter where drinks were usually served and crossed her legs, two twins dressed identically in purple pyjamas yawned as they waltzed out from the curtain on the far right of the counter where the sex workers received 'visitors' in their rooms,

"Ohayo Arana-sama," a twin with a rose hairclip holding up a long black overhanging bang chirped, the other twin though allowed her own bang to cover her left side, her soft brown eyes glinted at the head matron and she raised her visible eyebrow,

"Have you heard the news?" the matron said as she buffed her manicured nails on her chest and examined them,

"You need to be specific, lady," the other twin said,

"Well, Jay-chan, I was talking about Kitsugami-sama,"

Ray, the twin with the air clip snapped her fingers in realization, "oh yeah, that chase yesterday night…why didn't you let us help out again?" she angrily perched her fists on her hips and her twin frowned and followed suit,

"Kitsugami-sama specifically said we shouldn't interfere if it was to ever happened," she sighed wistfully, "he said he didn't want us to come into harm's way, the sweetheart,"

Jay blew her bang and looked away briefly, "well that's stupid,"

Ray bumped her shoulder, "he's sweet,"

"Do you know who Uzumaki Naruto is?" the matron asked as he snapped the twins out of their daze,

"The Kyuubi kid, he used to visit when he was like six, what happened to him?" Jay replied with a suspiciously raised eyebrow, "You're not telling me that that little kid was-"

The matron nodded, "Kitsugami Gumo, head of the Kitsugami Drug Company. Only I and his chief foreman knew this,"

"Damn it…" Jay cursed under her breathe, "Wasn't he some sort of star ninja? Damn it!" she threw her hands in the air, she then paused, "they didn't catch him right?"

The matron snorted, "of course not, this is Uzumaki Naruto we're talking about. Now, the reason I called you two is that he has sent a message back that he wants the snitch that ratted him out to be killed, he doesn't care how or where but preferably soon,"

Ray cocked her head to the side, "done," the usually ditzy twin was now stoic and her twin looked at her briefly before she too nodded.

 **Authors note**

 **I wanted to end the story here but there was something I wanted to add in, it's relevant if you squint really hard.**

 **It's a side story.**

 **It wouldn't be the last side story in 'Ink Heart'. Side stories, to me, are stories that don't hold that much of significance to the main story, but they are still very well connected to the story. This being said that this side story does not really influence the main story.**

 **That also means 'Aoki-chan's story' is** _ **not**_ **a side story since maybe (or maybe not) it does have a purpose in the main story (just squint really, really, really hard). Woof, I'm tired of all this explaining, read if you're interested BUT…beware…**

 **A warning; this story is going to be very violent. There will be a lot of unpleasant scenes, violent scenes. I am saying this from the bottom of my heart, this side story is not for the faint of heart; it contains torture on a psychological level. I apologise if they trigger anyone but don't say I didn't warn you. Here it is,**

 **Side story:**

 **What happened to Mizuki Touji?**

 **About a day before the chunin exams**

"I've found something, Kakashi-senpai," the masked shinobi looked to his right when he heard the familiar feminine voice of his subordinate, Uzuki Yugao. The swordswoman had been among the few people that had volunteered to rummage around in Naruto's abandoned warehouse/ laboratory. So far the only things they had found were stray pieces of paper that had gibberish scribbled over it, probably codes, some empty test tubes and, now, a camcorder with a memory card jutting out of it. The blonde and his clones might have overlooked it as they were scurrying to pack up their research. Even the beast that had attacked with the spiders had disappeared to wherever it came from.

Kakashi took the camcorder from her and looked at it with his lone eye, then he brought down the corner of his mask to expose his sharingan eye, "no tags or genjutsu," the camcorder's screen was smashed and its eye piece had been bent in a bad angle, it was too broken to be used.

He turned and walked to a large screen that hung securely on the wall, where Naruto used to magnify anything he was looking at through his powerful microscope. He pulled out the memory card and blew on it, and then he poked it into the space under the screen where Naruto had labelled for memory cards. The other ninja that had been looking around the ghost warehouse paused at what they were doing when Kakashi pushed the card into the space under the screen.

The screen fizzled.

The was a short, static buzz and there were only lines crisscrossing the screen before it abruptly cleared to reveal Naruto looking into the camera, his goggles black and his pale face an emotionless slat.

"I think it's on now boss," a dismembered voice said and Naruto smiled slightly,

"Good thing this thing was 100ryo huh," he muttered and handed the camera to the voice. The audience watched as Naruto cocked his head to the side and took off his hoodie to reveal his plain black short sleeved shirt, he leaned back to reveal that he was in the abandoned office, he hung his hoodie and ignored his lab coat in favour of walking out of the office, showing that the corridor between his main lab and the office was actually and animal containment area, containing a vast number of animals, so many that the audience wondered just how he was even able to get them past the gate keepers. He entered his lab, passing by the empty spider enclosures. He turned to the camera and this time on his formerly expressionless face was an bright grin, "this," he forced the clone holding the cam to turn to the left to reveal a silver haired man lying on a table with his hands and legs strapped down securely. His was in plain trousers and shirt and he was very much asleep, "is Mizuki-sensei,"

The watchers leaned back abruptly when they beheld the dozing man. Naruto had reported that he had 'torn him apart in an emotional explosion of clones'…

Naruto stepped away a few paces from the camera and walked to the side of the table where Mizuki lay. He raised his hand up…

…And used the back of his hand to slap the sleeping man awake.

"Good evening, Mizuki-sensei," Naruto said as he turned to the smaller table besides him, he ran his fingers over the gleaming tools and test tubes there then he looked back at Mizuki,

"What the…Kyuubi…?"

"Yeah…let's go with Kyuubi," Naruto grinned widely, exposing the serrated teeth feature he shared with his summons,

Mizuki tried to sit up abruptly but realized that his hands and legs as well as his midsection were held down by tight straps, "I always knew you were evil," the former teacher said under his breathe after a small chuckle,

"Evil is merely a perception from the victim. I merely do things for an end, is that so evil?" he picked up a syringe and stabbed it into a closed test tube, sucking all of its contents in. He then injected the liquid into a bag that hovered over the teacher, injecting another liquid into another bag; he connected these bags into a vein on Mizuki's left and right wrists,

"What do you plan on doing, demon?" the man's struggles were futile,

"You might have not have noticed but I pursue ideals people consider vile. Simply put, I want to turn you into a creature of nightmares. I might fail, I might succeed, the positive side is I would be able to see you break apart," he slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and a twisted, dark smirk crawled onto his face, "you should have never trusted Orochimara,"

"Wait wh-"

"Let's begin. There will be five stages of what I'm going to do to you," Naruto interrupted and flipped on the drip bags to begin pushing the clear liquid into his wrists, "disregarding your cursed seal you have a strong immune system, so the first stage is to…break your body; I'll start from inside and work my way out," he then harshly grabbed the man's cheek and smiled widely to the sweating man, "and believe me when I say this, I will savour every moment of it. Don't be shy to scream,"

That was when the immune weakening serum being pumped into the man's body began to take effect.

The things the young boy did to the chunin were too painful to watch. Naruto disregarded the man's screams of pain and when he deemed his immune system weak enough he injected what he called a 'regulation serum' into his system which boosted his regeneration while his immune system was still very low. The shinobi winced as Naruto whipped out multiple senbon and stabbed it all over the teacher, even laughing at his whimpers of pain. He roughly grabbed his hands and, one by one, he be began breaking his hands, then, to the audiences horror, he cut the fingers starting from the very tips down to the palms. Then the hands regrew but while they were doing that he focused on the feet, shredding it up to the knees and allowed them to grow back while he went back to the hands.

The blood, spit and mucus that sprayed from the screaming chunin was nauseating, some of the ninja that watched couldn't take it anymore and released the contents of their stomachs. Kakashi sighed when Naruto laughed loudly again as he jammed two senbon straight into the soles of Mizuki's feet; he closed his eye and grabbed what he could guess was the remote control that hung under the screen; he pressed the fast forward button. The first stage in the video lasted three days before Kakashi finally released the button; Mizuki was sweating buckets and his hands were shaking violently in their restraints, he was panting and crying,

"P-p-p-please…"

Naruto smirked at him in amusement, "and why are you begging. I believe you are ready for the second stages; breaking your mind. Looking at you now I'm half done with that. Let's begin,"

He made sure the regulation serum was still pumping into the broken teacher's body before he brought out two small clamps and used them to keep his eyes open. He then lifted up the table that held him down and spun it around to the very screen they were watching from. Naruto brought out the remote control for the screen and said,

"I will show you a series of pictures, they aren't too pleasant to look at but you don't any option but to watch it, don't you?" he clicked the play button and the TV flickered on, the camera then panned over to Mizuki's face and all of the colour,

"How did you-" a scream belted from the video and he struggled to look away, he struggled to close his eyes but his restraints held strong. His mouth stretched open and his eyes widened even more and, an hour later, he seemed very unresponsive. The ninja would have thought he was dead if not for the regular breathes that escaped his mouth. The rest of the video was dead silent.

Kakashi again fast forwarded.

Mizuki eyes were now flickering and the corners of his mouth were twitching, though he didn't speak. His eyes dully roved to Naruto as he walked past the camera, the ninja could see the sadistic blondes smirk as his former teachers mind crumbled and split apart by the seams to the torturously repetitious series videos he had shown him for a month.

"Excellent," Naruto said as he jotted something down into his clip board, "at this point you may _not_ be wondering why I'm doing this to you; besides the fact you thought you could manipulate me with money," he said with a short snort and roll of his eyes, "I don't want to seem like the cliché movie villain that would reveal his dastardly plot to the spunky hero right before he even does it," at this point it was like he was speaking to a plant, a living, breathing plant that had a twitching hand and flickering eyes. Mizuki's eyes now seemed permanently contracted eyes with a thin red ring around his eyeballs, probably caused from the tears he cried before his brain cells were fried. Naruto noticed this and chuckled to himself, writing down his discovery that even with the bait of telling him his plans would force any action; it was either he was faking his behaviour to escape the videos or his mind was genuinely so broken it was reminiscent to a window that a soccer ball had broken through. The ninja watching weren't aware of this but this was his intention, not the obvious fact that Naruto simply wanted to hurt Mizuki, but rather breaking his body and his mind were part of another goal he wanted. The former teacher had hauntingly wide eyes with pin-like pupils with red rims around both of his eyes, his mouth was slightly gaped.

The blonde mad and sadistic scientist was glad that Aoki-chan wasn't around to witness the proceedings. She had come face to face with the lower rungs of humanity and would rather not meet them again. She had been allowed to stay at his apartment or walk around the village if she wanted anytime he returned to the lab.

Shocking the watchers Naruto snapped his fingers and shadow clones walked before the camera, and removed the restraints from Mizuki's hands. The clones left as the man clumsily fell on the ground, he rigidly picked himself back up again, but his horrified facial features and pallid skin colour remained the same, this was understandable since he hadn't eaten a good meal in months of being in Naruto's lab.

The blonde poked his forehead again, seeing if he could elicit even a small wince but he got none, "it seems I can now move to the third stage of my project, breaking your will," the watchers felt their blood chill when he said this and some even covered their faces, this was the real side their comrade and their senpai didn't reveal to them, "I'll give you a ten minute head start. Run," the boy said shortly before he turned around.

The broken man remained in place, releasing the occasional breathe and taking in more. Naruto looked over his shoulder and sighed when he turned around,

"Fine then, I'll have to use one of man's primal instincts to break your will, the urge to eat," he snapped his fingers again and a single clone snapped a collar around Mizuki's neck, the chain trailed off into the background. Naruto riffled through his pocket and brought out five energy bars, he placed them one the floor and leaped back in time for the hungry teacher to dive at the bars. The man didn't even unwrapped the bars before he chomped down on it, swallowing thickly and whimpering at the taste. Naruto set his pen holding hand to the right and a steaming bowl of ramen was placed in his palm, he dropped the bowl but this time he didn't flinch away when Mizuki dived at him, because the chain effectively kept him and his hands away from him but at the same time painfully close. He dropped the bowl on the ground and left the lab.

Kakashi closed his eye again and fast forwarded until Mizuki was a thin, crumbling man on his hands and knees. He wasn't reaching for the food anymore, but rather he was looking up and waving away invisible flies that pestered him.

Naruto spoke outside the frame of the camera, "that stage served as a twosome; it broke your will and your spirit. So I can go to the next stage," he walked to Mizuki and shoved him back onto the table, the man didn't raise any sort of resistance, "I will refortify your body, strengthen your immune system and bestow you with body regeneration. This all considering that your mind is like a torn, crumpled piece of paper. Now what do you say…?" he had made sure to assign his clones to give him ten drops of water daily, but the food remained out of reach,

Mizuki coughed dryly and muttered, "thank you, Naruto-sama,"

Naruto beamed and ruffled his hair, "well done, you're learning. Now let's begin,"

The young scientist slowly slid a needle into the man's left wrist and connected a tube to be supplying regular drops of a chemical into his veins. He then slowly eased a needle to where his heart was and gently pushed the golden liquid of the injection into his body. He dropped the empty needle and placed his left pointer and middle finger on the man's neck while he whipped his right wrist in front of him to show he had on a ticking watch. He stayed like that, keeping count of his heart rate until he got what he was looking for; the man's heart began beating rapidly. He remained neutral as he injected his other wrist with another chemical, this one was light purple.

At this point you all may be wondering why his cursed seal wasn't reacting. The camera panned to the seal; to answer your question Naruto brought out a paint brush with bristles wet with ink and a phial of blood. He squinted his eyes and his goggles shone a faint red before he began tracing over the intricate seal, when he was done he channelled his chakra; a thin line slashed through the cursed seal and purple chakra pumped out and circulated through the man's body, aided by his rapidly pumping heart and his widening chakra coils. The boy gave the brush to a clone and retrieved another one, this one was dry; he dipped it into the blood phial and traced over the thin slash. The seal, surprising enough, began to flicker and beep black and purple; Naruto handed the brush to a clone and retrieved yet another brush, this time he bit his thumb and dipped the tip of the brush on the wound before his regeneration closed it up. It happened slowly; he tapped the blinking seal with the blood painted brush and it stopped blinking abruptly but began to bubble on his neck. The cursed seal rippled and spun within itself before it stopped, revealing that it was now in an Uzumaki spiral that was red rather than blue.

It was a feat jiriaya could only hope for, but at the same time a feat Naruto could not reach all by himself. He had sent a spider summons to Orochimara to request for the administration instruction scroll for the cursed seal of heaven. It always helped that your favourite relative was an evil scientist that had a taste for blood; she also sent the phial of blood for him to remove the seal. Though removing the seal wasn't his plan; he read through the scroll since the first day Mizuki arrived and had seen various routes to take the toad sage could never be aware of in order to remove the loyalty seal that was keyed to the snake sages blood and place his own instead.

The thick veins escaping the seal turned red and the man grunted, his fists clenched tightly but didn't break loose of his restraints.

Naruto allowed a small twitching smile to come to his face before he left the man to return to his other experiments, while at the same tie regulating and maintaining the flow of drugs to his other warehouses. The money he made on a weekly basis that was returned to him by his chief foreman was not only stored into small squares which were in turn stored in a room at the laboratory, but rather invested in expanding his drug corporation various other ventures he was not too focused in like his drug empire. Concerning his investments back into Kitsugami Drug Corporation he had set up more warehouses but not in Konoha but in both Snow and Marsh countries, there were more staff running around, which he had to pay for their loyalty with regular salaries, and he had made his administration system even more sophisticated. He had extended his drug corporation to include a delivery system; this was mainly for legal organisations that needed his drugs direly, like hospitals. There were at least a dozen C rank ninja that went to make the drop off but before that the money was wired to his account in Snow country. The money was always withdrawn to the last ryu just in case the country ever caught up to him and froze his account. The other thing he did was to invest his money into extending his corporation, yet again, into the espionage world. This was more of a passive hobby to the drug empire but in the shinobi world information was what turned the planet, then money. He encouraged the drop off ninja as well as the civilians, and ninja, which controlled the warehouses to keep an idle eye and ear out for any useful piece of information or blackmail that could serve a greater purpose for him.

Kitsugami Drug Corporation was now taking root into the elemental nations and even as the ninja watched the video Naruto had purposefully left behind they still weren't aware of how well connected the KDC could be. The Hokage, and the other Kages', may have made a vendetta to shut down his operations but their attempts were amusing, given the fact that their own hospitals depended on the drugs he himself had created, some of their ninja needed his own custom made chakra replenishing pills, which were better than the old ones seeing as they didn't have that much of a negative backlash when the chakra ran out. He might have been producing illegal drugs as well as his main merchandise but there were still a large sphere of people outside his workers that didn't want him to shut down his operations.

The next time Kakashi fast forwarded Mizuki looked much healthier than the last time. He had thick muscles and his back hunched noticeably on the table. His hair was shaggier; growing till it was past his barrel-like chest, this still considering the fact that it was shadowing his eyes. The tube connected to his wrist still supplied regular drops of liquid into his body.

Naruto spoke again from outside of the cameras view, "your cursed seal has been altered. That means, my broken friend, that I removed the limiter kept on it so that it would be eternally activated. In my research on humanity and nature chakra I have discovered that as long as a person is part animal of any kind, even a measly ant, then he will be saved from the adverse effects nature chakra has on use. That thing in your wrist is what I call 'Liquid DNA'; it contains a small, submissive strain of DNA from a Grass country tiger spider," these were spiders that were as large as three year old children (when they were fully grown) with no venom n their fangs to kill but rather to stun long enough for the fangs to fully sink into the neck of its victim. Its foil though was that with how quick it could strike and how stealthy it could move it was not a fast runner, "your cursed seal assimilates with this submissive DNA in you even more since it is a breed of spiders closely related to tigers. If I stopped the circulation of this DNA in your body the ones already in you would be eaten alive by your now strong immune system and you would turn into a stone. A sad fate for a miracle of science if I ever deemed you worthless,"

"Please master…" Mizuki muttered with a small unconscious growl, not one of defiance but rather since he could not speak without the occasional growl,

"Your usefulness to me is still yet to be seen;" Naruto simply said, "now the last stage is simply when I inject you with something I have been making here for a while now. It contains a mix of the tiger spider and the fire centipede. This should hurt, let's begin," he stabbed a needle he whipped out from his coat sleeve into the mutating man's neck and stepped left once again to attend to his duties in the lab and to his corporation.

As Kakashi once again fast forwarded all witness the change Mizuki underwent in high speed. His neck thickened, his arms bulked up even more and descended down to his feet, his legs became shorter (about as long as your foot to your knees), his skin turned greyish-red, his canines descended well past his chin, twelve spike like protrusions jutted out from his sides and twitched with life and a large mandible shot from the edges of his mouth and clicked together. He was now a freak of nature. The only rational thing that passed through his broken, twisted mind was on how to serve Naruto better to earn his favour.

Naruto smirked at what he had created and turned to the camera, a knowing glint in shone his eyes before it turned off.

The silence that reigned in the empty lab slash warehouse was deafening. Some of the chunin that Naruto had commanded during the invasion looked down at their hands. Kakashi sighed again and stashed the memory card into his flak jacket. No one spoke again as they all filed out of the warehouse and tree hopped back to the village.

Why did Naruto leave a video showing a juggernaut he had in his grasp? Just because. He didn't have to have a reason for everything he was going to do or doing presently, right?

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Side story ends here but main story continues**

Uzumaki Naruto, though, and his godmother, Orochimara of the Sannin were at the moment lying on their bellies on a high hill, with the sickly woman peering into a pair of binoculars. They were looking the violent whirlpools that spun over the oceans, then at the menacing sea creatures that swam through the whirlpools with ease, then finally to the dozens of highly ranked ninja wearing the Kumogakure forehead protector patrolling in front of the high wall that curved over the main path towards ocean, as well as the few shinobi that patrolled the other routes. It was ridiculous that the Raikage had gone through all this measures so that no one would go to Uzishio, disregarding the fact that there were dozens of whirlpools that would shred any person that was not an Uzumaki summons or with the Uzumaki bloodline (or associated closely with the Uzumaki). Since Kumogakure, and any other village, could not access Uzushiogakure completely then no one would.

Orochimara removed the binoculars from her yellow eyes and looked into Naruto's goggle protected own, she smirked wickedly,

"First lesson, my lovely little godson, is on how to pass _through_ Kumo to get to Uzishio," she motioned forward to reveal that they weren't even in Kumo, rather they were lying on a hill behind Hidden Mountain, which bordered Kumo, "we are going to put your stealth skills to the test," she pinched his cheek and stood up, he stood up as well to show he was in a well-fitting black and red hoodie, he shrugged on his back pack and carried his godmother's back pack in his right hand.

They always had the option of passing _around_ Kumo but where was the fun in that? Besides, cutting through the hidden village that had the world's highest bounty for the snake Sannin was way shorter than going around it. They had a long journey in front of them, which just so happened to do with breaking through the elemental nation's wealthiest hidden village to a destroyed village whose eternal defence may or may not reject them.

What could go wrong?

 **Final authors note**

 **Done. This chapter took me three days to complete, which is strange since I usually get a chapter done in a day. I blame it on the fact that I had to struggle to get the right emotion into this. Naruto, at this point in time, may technically be classified as the bad guy and I don't want you to think otherwise. He's just really selfish, not necessarily evil. Though he isn't selfish all the time, keep reading to find out when and how he stops being selfish.**

 **Next chapter is bound to be crazy. Any thoughts on the stunt those two want to pull? I've got some surprises coming…keep reading to find out what.**

 **I put up a new story called 'The Cursed Maker', check it out in my profile; it has an old Naruto in it. I'd appreciate it if you do, especially if you drop a review *massive smile***

 **Don't forget to drop a review on** _ **this**_ **story please to let me know what you think,**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Yo!**

 **I cannot be any more grateful for all your wicked awesome reviews.**

 **Thank you 'LordofTerror' for your thought on why Tsunade was immediately suspicious of Naruto, you'll see why in this chapter. I wouldn't have even thought of this if you didn't bring it up.**

 **To 'neydomus': most of your questions will be answered in this chapter.**

 **Note: I will be changing timelines in this chapter, serious changes. So keep an open mind. Hiruzen Sarutobi was** _ **already**_ **the Hokage when he became a sensei to Tsunade, Jiriaya and Orochimara; he used the smart way and had clones do his paper work while he trained his students. Of course he would go back to the office from time to time. Plus, if you're against a girl crushing on another girl then you should** _ **probably**_ **skip the** **flashback** **coming up in the story. Tsunade never dated Dan which is why she didn't hesitate before she returned back to Konoha; she doesn't think she's cursed.**

 **I think that's about it, I think…**

 **Enjoy**

CHAPTER 5

The snake and spider summoners leisurely walked towards Kumo when they got within a stone throw of the village and the woman was giving the boy advice on how to infiltrate a village considered impossible to infiltrate, "there are usually three ways to go about it," Naruto nodded to show he was listening while he made sure that no one was around to ambush them, "the first is when you actually sneak through the village, this is usually for those confident in their abilities and can back up their confidence with action, especially if you are well versed with standard procedure in the hidden village whether you are part of the ninja system or not,"

"Ok, does it count if I use this way to sneak into and through Konoha?

"It all counts, even if your sneaking into an underground cavern guarded by demons," Naruto pursed his lips and nodded, "this usually doesn't make use of any jutsu since you need to minimize chakra use so sensors wouldn't find out,"

"And sensory seals," Naruto added,

The woman beamed and ruffled his hair, "exactly. There are many ways to go about this but I personally like underground or subterranean travel, this helps because I can hold my breathe for a really long time. The second way of sneaking into a hidden village or country is when there is a huge distraction. This distraction can either be created by another, or external, force or by you,"

"External?" Naruto asked with furrowed eyebrows,

"This is a person or a group of people that you have never met or even know are present in the first place, it's sort of like a coincidental happening in your favour. Like if a person wanted to break into the Konoha hospital and he arrived just as the invasion was happening. You noticed how priority was set on keeping attackers contained and defending the walls, this distracts everyone from people sneaking that don't include fighters, not sure you understand,"

The boy still had his eyebrows furrowed but he nodded, "that would be smart, and extremely lucky, if that happened to us now,"

"It would but it's not what we want to do now, maybe another day. The other type of this distraction is when you _cause_ the distraction, like if you send an explosive clone to forcefully break into the village and detonate hundreds of feet away from your entry point. Standard procedure for every village is to contain the threat and to make sure the civilians are unharmed. This is a very ungraceful way to enter a village,"

"What if I make a clone to sneak in but make a break for it to the other side of the village, not necessarily a bomb?"

"Good, you're learning. The last way is very similar to the first and the second way; you sneak in but using chakra to shroud yourself, when you are detected you make a break for it to your destination, scattering distractions like traps and bombs around you,"

They stopped walking and hid behind a tree as they observed the gate of the extremely wealthy hidden village. There were small caravans owned by traders as well as people that walked through the gate, they were all carefully scanned and checked by gatekeepers for genjutsu and identification. Orochimaru nudged the boy and pointed at a plaque that was nailed to the front of the gatekeepers box, "what does that say?" it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before, she was merely testing his knowledge in fuinjutsu,

Naruto's black goggles shuttered like a camera and they spun slowly, showing that they were zooming in on the object he had been told to look at, "it's a detection seal stacked over a sensory seal,"

"The range?" she motioned for him to keep going,

"About a twenty feet distance radius from the gatekeepers' box, the limit for when a sensory seal is combined by a detection seal,"

The woman smirked at him, "correct, before we continue can you tell me why the seal can only go so far?"

"It is because the sensory seals only boosts the sensors abilities to sense while the detection seal is set to only detect humans and animals with chakra, this strains it to being pinpoint accurate, which means it can't stretch to far," a sensory seal would be useless unless there was a sensor to use it and a detection seal had a short range but at the same time it was very accurate; it was merely a combination of similar seals to boost their effectiveness. This also meant that there had to be a constant sensor in the gatekeeper's box, "which way are we going to use to sneak in?"

The woman shrugged and looked at him, "you choose,"

"The first, I've only used that in ninja encampments, never to a place on this scale,"

"Alright but…that would be a problem seeing as they have a detection-sensory seal combo,"

"So…"

"We are definitely going to use that way," she grinned widely, exposing her needle-like canines and pristine teeth and he too slowly grinned widely at the look in her eyes.

She pulled him a little deeper into the forest and sat him down on a large rock. She asked for her backpack from him and he gave her, she rummaged through it and whipped out a make-up set. He snorted in amusement when he saw this and took off his goggles so she would begin changing his face.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

A woman with light pink hair, white painted face, pouty red lips and colourful eye shadow raised her chin and looked down at the chunin gatekeepers with hard blue eyes. She was in a white kimono with beautiful multi-coloured flowers dotted all over it and a white obi around her waist, she leaned out of the window and gracefully perched her elbow on the window, "yes?"

"Identification please," the woman said in a bored voice,

"You mean you don't know who I am?!" she screamed, "you don't know who I am?!"

"I'm sorry ma'am-"

"I have never been so insulted in my life!" she began fanning herself with a cloth hand fan that had been in her left hand,

"Kaa-san?" a squeaky voice said from inside the regal carriage, "what's happening, kaa-san?"

"Oh my sweet little child, these uncouth _ninja_ don't know who I am," she turned her head to the ninjas, now two chunin, who were beginning to hate their posts and spat, "now look what you've done; you've woken up my handsome little boy, you all should be ashamed of yourselves," the boy adjusted his black glasses so they didn't slip down his nose,

"Please calm down, kaa-san," the person sat up and the chunin could see it was a pale boy with rosy red cheeks and thin lips, his blonde hair was gelled down and he was clad in a red and black formal kimono his size, there was a deep red _obi_ around his waist but they couldn't see that from where they were standing. He gently rubbed the hand he held he had in his grasp and the woman placed a hand over her heart dramatically, "they were only trying to confirm it was you," he sharply looked at the flustered chunin and said, "weren't you?" she nodded frantically,

Here a man in jet black hair dropped from the front of the carriage, he was in a sharp penguin suit. He was very different from the people in the carriage; he was tanned and had black eyes. Though he had a long nose (like a beak) which he looked down from with his beady black eyes, "I am quite surprised you do not know Nami-sama and her son Maki-sama,"

The poor chunin hesitantly shook her head, "I-I-I'm sorry…"

The man snorted, "Well I wouldn't expect one like you to know them; they are artists," the light skinned girls 'oh'd' in understanding,

"I'm sorry but I'll still need their ID,"

"It can't be helped," the woman called Nami said with a small sighed, "give them our IDs,"

"And do hurry, kaa-san is tired and would really like her beauty sleep," the woman suppresses a snort and pinched the boy,

"At once," the butler said and reached into his front pocket, he presented three IDs and the girl bowed twice before she ran into the gatekeepers box, she returned three minutes later and smiled at them,

"You guys check out, do you mind telling me why you are in Kumogakure?"

"They are on their vacation, the artisan lifestyle is very hectic and they need a break," the butler said nasally,

"Of course, of course, have a nice stay," she waved for them to continue and they did as soon as the butler got back behind the horses. As they were out of ear shot the girls sighed in relief and wiped the perspiration that was building on their foreheads, "I need to get out more," said a girl and her partner nodded, they went back to her post, waiting for another person to come.

Back with Nami and Maki, the pink haired woman peaked out of the window and when she saw they were far enough she burst into laughter, Maki joined her. They held their bellies and tears ran down their eyes,

"I can't believe they fell for it," Nami said as she ripped off her pink wig, revealing jet black hair, she stuck her tongue out in disgust at the hair colour, "with our acting skills we should will Jinji awards," (in this story they're equivalent to Grammy awards)

After the Sannin had laid down white foundation over their faces they had hijacked a carriage carrying the _real_ Nami and Maki, stole their IDs and rode through to Kumo. Naruto summoned a clone and the woman disguised him as well. Since they both had massive amounts of chakra they were forced to super supress it to civilian capacity but the act of holding the compact size was like holding in pee; as if on cue they both released their hold over their chakra and they sighed in relief, slumping back into the comfortable chairs.

The carriage screeched to a stop abruptly as they were passing through a small farm at the side of the mountain Kumogakure was situated on, Naruto poked his head out of the window but the Sannin playfully pulled him back in and poked her own head out, the boy suppressed the amused smirk before she waved her hand at him, "coasts clear,"

"Whatever," the boy muttered and jumped out through the window, he grumbled and tore off his long formal kimono sleeves, "I hate wearing this…it's like wearing a pillow,"

"Get used to it kid, if your records say you're a great adaptive fighter then don't mess up that image," adaptive fighters were those that were able to use any terrain, handicap, situation, and opponent to their advantage. Naruto was recognised as an adaptive fighter after his second trail jounin test where he had to retrieve Eritajijo back from Suna but it was cemented after a mission he went on with Yugao to Hidden Darkness; he had been tasked to rescue a shinobi who had been injured in his post there but it was an ambush where the darkness shinobi dropped around them, bringing with them their 'darkness in a can'. This delved them into pure chakra induced darkness where even his goggles wouldn't be able to penetrate. What Naruto had done was to make full use of his six extra eyes to sweep around him every ten seconds, having to move around and fight in pitch darkness. At the end they had managed to get the injured ninja back to Konoha but relations with hidden Darkness was still strained.

The two highly ranked ninja leisurely walked to the barn and Naruto pushed the door open, he peaked in and entered when he noticed that not even animals were inside. The 'butler' merely stayed back to watch the horses while the two ventured into the barn fully.

Orochimara had informed the young Uzumaki that their travel around the elemental nations was purely educational for Naruto but at the same time it wouldn't be only her that would be speaking or performing actions. The sick woman looked at the boy and he focused his senses through the dot 'eyes' on his forehead; the world turned black and white, the ground rippled and six phantom black legs crawled out from his shadow, which only he could see, and 'felt' over everything, allowing him to look through until he finally felt something. He cancelled his concentration to those eyes and nodded towards a large empty crate at the far back, the short look he gave his godmother, even though his pitch black goggles, told her everything she needed to know; she didn't pull out a kunai from her sleeve. His added 'eyes' allowed him to see the world in extra detail, which was amazing since the ordinary human eye could already do that. The thing that made Naruto's spider eyes special was that since he could see in better detail he was able to see things most wouldn't see at speeds most wouldn't be able to fathom. His mission quota shot up after his three month long trip and his long range accuracy shot up even more (I'll write later on how his 'eyes' and 'nose' are pretty cool)

She stayed where she was and the boy walked up to the crate, he then heard, "Tori-chan no!" then a childish war cry, the blonde spider summoner smirked a little in amusement and reached forward to catch the little girls head in his hand, the girl kept on stubbornly trying to reach for him but she didn't have the strength to push against his hand, "let go! Fight me!"

Naruto cocked his head to the side to look behind the crate and saw a dark skinned, blonde haired girl in a wheelchair that had both of her hands covering her mouth, and her eyes clenched shut. He rolled his own eyes when the little girl he was holding back tried kicking him but again this was a futile attempt, "relax kid," quicker than she could anticipate he spun her around and her moving legs had her run back into the wheelchair girl, "good, now where are your parents?"

"P-please sir-"

"It's a simple question; I didn't add a threat, did I?"

"They're in the market," the blonde girl muttered with her eyes still closed, "do anything you want to me but please don't hurt Tori-chan,"

Naruto actually leaned back in shock and blinked twice, he looked at the snake lady and she shrugged, motioning for him to keep talking, "I'm not going to hurt you, matter of fact we're just passing through,"

He made sure to show both of his hands, they're bags were in the carriage, the little girl, who looked identical to the older girl, glared suspiciously at him but she stayed in front of her sister in a stance akin to one about to pounce on a target.

"What are you doing here?"

"We came to give the owners of this house our horses, no use feeding them to our pets huh," Orochimara said as she peeked around the corner of the crate at the girls, she noticed that her words only increased the mistrust visibly being shown by the little girl. They always had the option of killing the girls but not everyone they met had to be killed, or so Orochimara lectured had her godson, and that it would be a waste of horses if they just gave them to be slaughtered by their summons when they had their own sources of food in their summoning realm.

Naruto slowly stepped away from them with his hands still up to show he didn't have any weapon there, "we'll just leave them in here," when he was about twelve paces away from them he turned around and took the reins of the three horses from the clone butler, "there they are…" he tied the horses to a post and waved with a wide smile to the girls as they peeked out from behind the crates,

"Wait!" the girl in the wheelchair shouted and the blonde stopped mid-walk back to the barn door, "you haven't told us your name," or even what the heck they'll have to tell their parents when they asked about the horses,

"Call me Naruto,"

"My name is Teri and this is my baby sister Tori, thank you for the horses," she nodded and he gave her two thumbs up,

"No thanks needed, Teri-san, Tori-san, I'll be going now," he sent a lax two fingered salute as he went out the large doors. He could already hear the sisters trying to come up with a reason why they suddenly have three horses,

Outside Orochimara raised an eyebrow as she looked at her godson, "well that was amusing, come and help me with this please," the boy knelt down beside her and used his hands to keep a large scroll open while she rolled her shoulders and pushed the carriage onto the edge, _"Seal,"_ she muttered and with a large poof the wooden carriage was gone, "you never know when you'll need a carriage, I always say," she said as she sealed the scroll into her palm,

Naruto rolled his eyes, not for the first time that day either, "you don't say that,"

The woman bopped his nose and threw her right arm over his shoulder as they started walking down the dusty road that led directly to Kumo's 'backdoor', which was seldom ever used since it only led to Uzushio.

The woman raised a finger to begin another lecture but a loud yell had both of them look back, the woman still had her arm over his shoulder as she muttered, "uh oh,"

"There they are! Those are the guys that stole our stuff!" a pink haired woman wrapped in a white blanket screamed as she pointed at the duo, a boy with gelled blonde hair that was clad in only boxers and a black haired man in briefs fumed angrily at them, "I thought for sure they would stay put…" the Sannin said as she scratched her chin, they had left the real Nami, Maki and butler in hidden Mountain. They heard dozens of feet land around them and they spied both Mountain and Lightning shinobi surround them, when they noticed that it was the snake and spider summoner that they were around they began whipping out their weapons or getting into strong taijutsu stances. The duo though remained in the same position as they carefully looked around; Orochimara unwound her arm from around the boys shoulder and stood up straight, her wicked smirk in place, "it seems we wouldn't be using the first way, huh kid?"

Naruto hunched over as two three foot long senbon slid out of his launchers and clicked in place, they grazed the ground as he got his legs into a light stance, "it seems not," he set his right arm to hook over his head and his left to point forward, it was still the four legged shadow spider stance but it was still a position he could alternate and reduce some 'legs' after he had gauged the severity of the situation, no need to put too much effort of he was fighting weak ninja,

"Alright then, let's see what these guys can do," she stood behind Naruto, facing the ninja behind him, and steadily got into a light snake fist stance. "taijutsu and weapons alone," she muttered and he nodded; she didn't need to know how well Naruto was with his taijutsu, she had gone against him in the forest of death as well as Kabuto reported all of his missions back to her, she merely wanted to see how well they would work together as a team, this was also what Naruto thought as a matching smirk set on his face.

The very air that passed through the ninja was taunt and some even began perspiring but they didn't flee or stand down. Then, like a light switch had been flipped, they dived onto the duo…

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The silence that fell in the office was solemn after they had just finished the tape of Naruto mutating the formerly thought to be dead Mizuki Touji. The Hokage, Tsunade Senju, sighed and propped her elbows on her desk as she looked at the other occupants of the room one by one. Kakashi, Yugao, Jiriaya, Shikaku, Kureanai and Asuma; the genjutsu mistress tried to keep her composure as her image of the same boy that had helped Anko through her random spouts of depression changed drastically and Asuma too wondered why he didn't detect this side of Naruto as he invited him to a game of Shogi with Shikamaru. Shukaku, Yugao and Kakashi just regretted why they didn't approach him when he was younger; Naruto Uzumaki was the top ten special jounin in Konoha, probably even stronger than some full jounin, the potential that the boy had in him was astounding.

"I think we know the next step from here," Tsunade said first, breaking the tense silence, "he's a rogue ninja and he has to be placed in the Konoha bingo books," it was inevitable; he was already B rank ninja in the Iwa bingo books, closely rising to A rank, as well as an A rank ninja in hidden Darkness, it was only a matter of time other villages heard of his defection and altered his standing in their bingo books.

The former ANBU in the room chose to remain professional about it, despite how personal the matter was, "yes," Kakashi nodded, since they were some of the few ninjas that had been close to Naruto, or so they thought, then they should be the ones to gauge his standing in the bingo books,

"Well, considering the fact that he has a single jutsu that is able to hold us down and a toad summon, then I say he's an A rank," Jiriaya said,

"He has his spiders and Mizuki, I agree, he has to be A rank," Yugao said quietly,

"His taijutsu is impeccable and his ninjutsu skills are one the best I've seen. A rank," Kakashi supplied as he sat down on the window sill, a place where Naruto used to sit down during jounin meetings,

"Naruto is able to plan ahead, much further than most jounin, which explains why he has such a high A class mission quota. He should be A rank," Asuma added,

"His stealth skills are his shining points to me, he was able to steal the forbidden scroll from under our noses once and then his tracking and capturing skills shouldn't be left out, I say he should be an A rank missing ninja," Shukaku finalised, "one to be approached with caution,"

The jounin nodded in agreement and the Hokage finalised the decision and placed it in the new edition of the Konoha bingo book:

 **KONOHA BINGO BOOK Entry No 42**

 **Rank: A**

 **Name: Uzumaki Naruto,**

 **Moniker(s): Shadow spider** (AN: another moniker is coming after this chapter)

 **Age: 13**

 **Affiliation: Konohagakure (formerly), Kitsugami Drug Corporation (CEO), Spider clan, Aoki-chan (rogue samurai), Orochimara of the Sannin, missing ninja**

 **Bloodline: sensor type, Kyuubi jinchuriki, Uzumaki regeneration ability** (they might not be bloodlines but whatever, they need to be noted)

 **Summons: Spider clan (maybe snake clan as well)**

 **Description: blonde hair, wears black goggles (sometimes), vulpine red eyes, usually in dark clothes, wears two silver senbon launchers on his wrists and has serrated teeth (like his summons).**

 **Specialization(s): taijutsu, ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, shurikenjutsu, summoning ninjutsu, first aid, espionage, infiltration, spying, tracking, capturing, researching and investigating. It is believed that he is able to use his Kyuubi chakra to a high degree but it is still yet to be seen. His goggles prevent genjutsu from working on him but it is also known that he isn't good at genjutsu.**

 **Information: not much is known about Uzumaki Naruto since he is very private about his life but he was not closed off from associating with other ninja in the village. He is the owner and founder of the Kitsugami Drug Corporation, a drug company whose activities and movements are still a great secret. He is credited for creating his own summons and his own fighting style (the four legged shadow spider fighting style), a feat that is rarely ever heard of in any country. It is speculated that he travels around with Aoki-chan, an A rank rogue samurai, who is close friend and (probably) Orochimara of the Sannin, who is his godmother. Not much information is known about him. He might not be as smart as a Nara but he is a very close second; it is advisable that if he is ever encountered, only A rank ninja and above should attempt to face him.**

 **DO NOT ENGAGE UNLESS YOU ARE A RANK AND ABOVE!**

The jounin filed out so it only left the two last loyal Sannin. Jiriaya sighed and sat down on the chair in front of the Hokage's desk, "should I start looking for him?"

Tsunade was silent for five minutes before she slowly shook her head, "no…leave him be,"

The toad sage raised an eyebrow, "mind I ask why?"

"He has shown that he doesn't hold grudges against us and he doesn't have anything we want, besides his spider summons; it's best if we don't associate with him or else he'll start asking just how his parents bank accounts were drained dry," the man paled and chuckled nervously,

"Plus he knows konoha's defence like the back of his hand; we don't want him coming after the civilian council,"

"Or us," Tsunade added,

"You're afraid of him?"

The woman snorted, "of course not, but do you remember he is very good with poisons. He beat Kakashi and Gai on his first fight with them," he held down Kakashi, Yugao, Jiriaya and a freaking toad with a web bomb, she added in her mind, "but I do want you to find out where he is or even his travelling plans,"

"Understood," Jiriaya nodded before a perverted grin stretched on his face, "I miss you already, hime," he winked but dove out of the window as a heeled ninja sandal was thrown at him, the slug Sannin grumbled as she retrieved her heel,

"Damn pervert," she sat down heavily on her chair and put her shoe on again. She leaned back on her chair and looked out of her office window, a memory of when she was a young hit her and she understood why the moment Hiruzen Sarutobi had sent a copy of Naruto's ninja history as he summoned her back to Konoha she immediately didn't trust Naruto.

 _Flashback_

(I'm writing this from my point of view, not Tsunade's)

A nineteen year old Tsunade Senju grinned widely and sent a small finger wiggling wave to a few flustered boys as she waltzed past the academy, the jounin vest on her torso glinted slightly as she puffed out her chest in pride; she was in a very good mood. She spied one of her team mates, Orochimara, walking towards the academy; she seemed to be too preoccupied with her thoughts to see Tsunade seeing as the Senju had waved but the snake summoner still couldn't see her. The blonde girl pursed her lips in irritation and was about to yell until she saw the pale teen raise her hand and wave frantically as academy students began pouring out of the door after the break bell had sounded, curious enough a blonde ball of yellow and white energy barrelled into her belly and, rather than hissing in a feral rage and killing the menace, she laughed quietly and hugged the boy back,

"Mara-nee-chan, you came!" the ten year old boy had bright blue eyes and slightly tanned skin, he wore blue shorts and a white shirt that had the snake clan symbol on the shoulders with blue sandals on his feet,

The young snake summoner grinned and released the boy from her grasp, ruffling his hair familiarly, "of course I'll come, you forgot your lunch box, again," she reached behind her back and whipped out a bento box of food for the boy and his eyes sparkled in wonder at how impossible it was for a tin of food to magically appear from behind her, "its ramen and veggies, just so you know," they were now standing in a remote part of the academy training ground where the students wouldn't be able to see them, a spot Orochimara was very familiar with,

"Awesome! Thank you nee-chan," he said and took the tin from her, she closed her yellow reptilian eyes as she smiled widely,

"Don't worry about it," she said as she led them to a bench and sat down, the watching Senju was about to yell for the boy to drop the food, fearing that it was poisoned, but it was too late; Minato had already taken four mouthfuls and no negative effects. The pale jounin leaned back coolly with her hands behind her head, crossed her leg and looked at him, "so how was class?"

The boy shrugged as he hastily tried to swallow the hot food in his mouth before he replied, "eh, it was ok, I guess,"

She raised an eyebrow, "is there something wrong?" he shrugged again but he had slowed down his eating, she placed a hand on his shoulder, " _Minato-kun_ …?" she drew out his name and he sighed,

"Someone called me a sissy, it's nothing, really," he insisted as her eyes steeled over,

"Who is this person?" she asked slowly but rolled her eyes at his worried look, "I'm not going to do anything bad to them, don't worry,"

"It's Uzumaki Kushina," he said as he stopped eating, opting to rather poke his noodles with his chop sticks,

"Well what did you do for her to call you that?"

"I didn't do anything! Promise," she suppressed the smirk and he blushed a deep red, "ok, ok, I said…I liked her hair,"

"You're just too cute, Minato-kun," she hiss-laughed, "just try and avoid her, you'll be fine,"

"If you say so…"

Once upon a time Tsunade had a massive crush on Orochimara, she might still have one, but certain things about the snakes summoner made her suspicious. First was that she practically popped out of nowhere during their academy resumption, she didn't have any parents and she was as cold as ice to everyone, even their sensei and Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. As her team mate she had seen Orochimara in action and it was never a pretty sight, the sheer bloodlust that sparkled in her eyes on every dangerous mission was spine chilling.

Now, hiding behind a tree with her chakra supressed, she watched as the icy exterior of the snake summoner was chipped off right before her very eyes. This 'Minato' was probably the only person she had seen Orochimara be free around, or even remotely kind to. Quite frankly she thought Orochimara always had an iron rod shoved far up her ass. She squinted her eyes in suspicion at the two as they chatted on and on one matters only they could understand, speaking in a code only they could decipher, and suspicion on who Minato was started to fester in her mind. She had only seen Minato once and that was when team Sarutobi were leaving the gate, she had spied him hiding behind a building and looking on as they left. Shocking enough this didn't make her suspicious since it wasn't the first time a boy had watched them leave, she even thought that it was _her_ that Minato was staring at but apparently it wasn't true.

The bell sounded and she watched as the bubbly boy gave the teen a parting hug before he ran back to class. The Senju furrowed her eyebrows in thought and melted into the darkness behind her, taking a route back to the village so she could begin a thorough investigation on who Minato and Orochimara were, but first she had to enlist the help of a master detective,

"You want me to do what?" Jiriaya said as he dug his pinkie into his ear, "something funny must have crawled into my ear, for a minute there I thought you said we should _**stalk**_ Orochimara-chan, but that's crazy, right?"

Tsunade placed her fists on her hips and glared at the white haired jounin, "we're not stalking her…we're just going to…ask around about her, nothing bad there,"

"Yeah, nothing bad but this is Orochimara-chan we're talking about! She'll kill us!" he threw his arm in the air, "I will have no part in this," what if during their 'questioning' they walk in on the snake summoner naked in the bathroom? Even though that _**would**_ be a great sight… _'Snap out of it!"_ he slapped himself and sat down on a tree stump, "I rather like living, Hime-chan, don't you?"

The Senju princess huffed in frustration and rolled her eyes, "she won't kill us-"

"Remember what she did to Gigi-san when he _**touched**_ her shoulder? Huh, do you remember?!" she had broken both of his arms, he was still in the hospital recovering from both the physical and psychological scars, next time he wouldn't try and flirt with her again, "what of Bumi-san, remember him?" Orochimara had 'accidentally' shoved him off a cliff for winking at her, "or Yutoroji-san," this idiot purposely _groped_ the snake girl during a spar and before they could all say 'ah shit' his head had been buried under the ground and his body was upright, like he had been _stabbed_ into the ground, _and_ the girl still didn't stop the beatings until Hiruzen had stepped in and restrained her, "or Kumito-chan," this was a Suna konuichi that had called Orochimara a freak after she had manifested twin snakes as her arms to fight, 'freak' was a watered down version of what she really called her; she was still looking for all of her teeth, now she wore her scarf around her mouth, "or Rintachi-chan-"

"Alright I get it," Tsunade said sourly, Jiriaya crossed his arms smugly, his point had been made, "but don't you think she's even a little bit suspicious? She just randomly appeared after Sarutobi-sensei became Hokage, she is literally part snake and, despite being two whole years late, she still became konuichi of the year,"

"Well…yeah…" the spy master said as he scratched his chin in thought, "come to think of it that is sort of strange,"

"See?"

The white haired teen furrowed his eyebrows and actually really thought of exactly what his crush wanted him to do; he wanted them to investigate on who Orochimara was, probably due to a suspicion that had reared its ugly head out, seeing as Tsunade used all of her genin and part of her chunin days chasing after the snake summoner. Even though he didn't look or act like Jiriaya was certain that he was familiar with the Konoha migration log and citizen registry, and Orochimara was only mentioned abruptly in the registry. Even after the second shinobi had blown over little was still ever known about her. Then an idle thought struck him, "why all this so suddenly? You've never acted like this about her before,"

She pushed him off the stump he was sitting on and he groaned as his face met the ground, "I saw her going to the academy-"

"Probably to go scout out for fresh meat," the boy muttered as he got up and dusted his clothes down,

"Shut up, idiot, as I was saying, I saw her going to the academy to give a kid lunch she forgot at 'home'"

There was a short silence before Jiriaya couldn't hold himself anymore, his belly laughs spread far and wide over the training ground, as his laughs tapered out he took a deep breathe and sent an amused smile at the blonde girl, who looked like just a small tap away from giving a ground shattering blow to him, "I think you should go to the hospital, Hime-chan, I knew I shouldn't have cooked that crab I picked off the ground on our last mission…"

"What?"

The teen frantically waved for her to calm down, "my point is it's probably not _our_ Orochimara you saw,"

"I'm a hundred percent sure it was her," the last Senju insisted, "his name is Minato and they act like they're siblings but he looks nothing like her. I mean, she seemed so happy around him and not in a perverted, paedophilic way," she added as a bright glint entered the toad sage's eyes, "like they were really siblings,"

"Do you think sensei knows about this?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so,"

"Well…let's go and find out who Orochimara is then," he said and reached his right hand for a handshake and the Senju reached forward to shake it but an idle gust of wind blew behind him, not strong enough to even blow a leaf but apparently strong enough for him to over reach and grab her bountiful bosoms, "whoopsie, the weather huh hime-chan,"

"Pervert!"

 _Thud! Boom!_

When the situation had more or less been settled the duo separated after Jiriaya had assigned functions to them; he would do the digging on Orochimara while frantically avoiding her, while Tsunade was to watch Minato and note everything on him.

What she had discovered about the young blonde speedster troubled her greatly; she sat down on a branch with her legs crossed as she watched the boy spar against a classmate, a ten year old in his third year of school was not meant to know how to fight so well. Minato spun under a punch and his arms shot out, grabbed the back of the attackers neck and in a flurry of limbs he brought the opponents face down to meet the mat with his forearm placed firmly on his neck and his pointer and middle fingers of his right hand pointing to the back of his head. He had ended a spar in two minutes flat with flow and ease it almost seemed like he was humouring his opponent by even fighting him. The boy stood back and politely bowed to his opponent before he returned to his friends, who were patting him on his back, he smiled widely at them.

He was nothing like Orochimara but at the same time they were very similar; the boy thrived in the basic sciences aspect of the academy, and he especially gravitated towards spiders irrespective of their danger level. With every passing hour of watching the boy interact she grew even more suspicious, with every happy smile and jovial greeting she grew to suspect that there had to be more to the eye on Minato Namikaze. No one could be that close to the Snake Sage without having even the slightest bit of darkness lurking in him.

Sadly for Tsunade, depending on how you look at it, she couldn't follow the boy back to his home since he lived with Orochimara.

Though the next day, just as the snake sage had dropped off the boy in school she took permission from his class sensei to speak with him. She struggled to hold up a smile for the nervous boy as she motioned for him to sit down on some chairs outside an empty class, "good morning, Senju-sama,"

"There's no need to call me that, Tsunade is just fine," she said with a gentle smile, she reached over to pat his head but frowned at the way he recoiled from her touch even though she had seen him get pats on his back from his friends the day before,

"Tsunade-san," he said with his head tilted down, he kept his eyes on his lap, "did I do something wrong?"

"Nope, I was just curious about something about you. What's your relationship with Orochimara the snake sage?"

Here he perked up and bounced in his seat in excitement, "Mara-nee-chan is my nee-chan,"

"Is that so?"

He nodded, "Hai, she is very kind and nice and smart and…" here he blushed heavily, "very beautiful," the Senju tried to suppress her own blush but forced herself to focus on her goal,

"How long have you known her?"

"A while," he answered ominously,

"Ok…I take it you're not blood relations then,"

The boy snorted, "I wish," again it was a very short answer, she sat there, just watching him play with his fingers nervously, "can I go back to class now? I don't want to miss anything," she nodded but before he left she said,

"Don't tell her I was her, ok?" he nodded but needless to say Minato told Orochimara.

The snake sage buffed her fingernails on her flak jacket and examined them as Tsunade stepped into her apartment; the pale jounin was sitting on her couch in a lax position, "glad to see your back, how are you?"

"Mara-chan, umm…I wasn't expecting you,"

"I just decided to drop by, y'know, to see my team mate and find out how she's doing. I can't do that?" she asked as she reclined into the comfortable chair with her legs crossed,

"But…I don't remember giving you my keys…" nor did she see any signs of forceful entry anywhere,

"Oh don't worry about that, Tsu-chan. Why don't you have a seat, you look tired," she motioned to the chair beside the couch she was sitting on. Matter of fact, Tsunade _was_ tired; she had just returned from the patrol tower at the west part of konoha's border, the leading medic ninja hesitantly took a seat and watched as a snake clone walked out of the kitchen with two cups of steaming green tea, setting it down on the table. The snake sage noticed her hesitation and a small smirk crossed her face as she leaned forward and dipped her pinkie finger into the cup directly in front of Tsunade, licking it off slowly, Tsunade swallowed thickly,

"Umm…I…umm…why are you here again, if you don't mind me asking," she said as she took the tea and gently blew into it, she was struggling to get her mind back on track,

"Someone very dear to me told me you were asking him about his relationship with me," the pale jounin said as she sipped her tea gently,

"It's just that-"

"I'll have to ask you to stay away from him, he is none of your concern," she interrupted sharply and screwed her lips to the side a little,

"We've been a team for seven years, we've gone on so many missions together, we've camped in so many kami forsaken places together and you never once mentioned you had a brother," Tsunade said sharply, "I thought you trusted us, Mara-chan,"

"Oh Tsu-chan, I do trust you guys, I just prefer keeping my private and professional life as separate as possible,"

"We're your team," the blonde muttered, "We're your friends,"

Orochimara smiled in mild amusement and nudged the other teens foot with her own, "then why do you have Jiriaya researching on me? If we're friends like you say you should be up front and ask me any question you want answered, right?" she stood up sharply before the medic could give any clear response and Tsunade followed suit immediately, "just stay out of my business and you'll both be fine,"

She walked out of the apartment and the closing door sounded like a canon to the Senju. The brief meeting between her and the snake girl only proved to be even more suspicious of her crush; why was she being so secretive and protective about Minato?

It was when Minato was a genin and was being trained by Jiriaya did she get her answer. Orochimara became more withdrawn, if that's even possible, and colder than ever towards her team mates but she never neglected the blonde boy. Minato too was incredibly secretive about his relationship with Orochimara, even though they were seen less and less together.

The day it had been discovered that Orochimara was behind the kidnappings and the murders going on in Konoha did Tsunade realize something about Minato; that he balanced her out and she balanced him out as well. He was the cushion that she could cry into any day and she was his support from the very first day they had met. As she knelt down beside his broken body, ignoring the rain as it pelted down on them, so that she could stabilize him enough for transport back to Konoha after he had almost been torn to pieces by the now rogue snake sage, she instantly regretted trying to interfere in his and her team mates lives all those years ago. Years passed and he was more withdrawn, more secretive, even to his girlfriend, Uzumaki Kushina, who just so happened to be her niece. Though only those close to him knew of his fervent search for his long lost sister. He was still all smiles and laughs among his friends but when he was alone she would observe a shadow that passed through his eyes and the disdain he held, for who? She didn't know.

Kushina weathered the storm and the love he had for her could never be compared to any other person but he was just never the same again after Orochimara had defected. Tsunade watched on, ever suspicious of when he would finally snap and perform evil like his sister.

He died protecting Konoha, and now apparently his son, before anything else could happen.

 _Flashback end_

Naruto had the same look and feel as Minato, through and through, but the darkness in him was only darker and more sinister. Her dead sensei had said that Orochimara had reached over to him and gave him his goggles, helping him with his eye problems greatly, as well as pushed him towards learning about the world.

The thing was…the Sandaime, the toad sage, the copy ninja and the cat ANBU were a hundred percent sure that Orochimara _**DID NOT**_ push Naruto towards performing all of the evil experiments and trading in drugs; it was a path he had chosen on his own. Orochimara had not, as far as they knew, sent over training scrolls or jutsu scrolls to him to learn from, he had done it all on his own. Orochimara had not given pointers to Naruto on how best to break into the most secure building in the entire village, he had done it himself. In his very countenance and composure she saw Minato, who was just as quiet and smooth when he was all business. Naruto and Minato were almost mirror images of themselves, only Naruto could be considered a version of Minato who had survived the Kyuubi attack and found his long lost sister…

A version of Minato who had gone much deeper into his inner darkness, and who just so happened to house the strongest tailed beast on the planet, who had connections far deeper than anything she could guess and who probably would make an exceptional civilian medic with his extensive knowledge of the human body seeing as his chakra capacity was too high for him to control enough to perform medical ninjutsu.

It was best if they did not poke him, if he had been able to steal the forbidden scroll when he had just graduated the academy (and was not part spider) then what was to say he was not able to sneak past konoha's defences (when he _was_ part spider)?

The Senju grunted and turned to her desk, she then began to write a well written letter to all of konoha's allies that Uzumaki Naruto, konoha's jinchuriki and the son of the Yondaime Hokage, had defected and that he should be placed in their bingo books accordingly. It was standard procedure for those allied to Konoha, what they did with this information was up to them.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto, with his legs rooted into the ground and his arms like pincers, stabbed his arm senbon through a mountain ninja, spun around on his left leg and threw the ninja into two of his comrades. He leaned backwards from two sword strokes from two Kumo ninja and jammed his long senbon into the ground; the ninja raised their eyebrows at his unorthodox move, a human bridge (or the crab), so they weren't fast enough to raise their katana as Naruto's whole body blurred with speed, leaving just a senbon in the ground, as he spun like a tornado. Multiple wires shot from the deadly wind and pulled them in; inside the deadly wind vortex was deadly purple smoke, which couldn't be seen from outside, which promptly paralyzed his opponents, allowing him to lop off their body parts and use them as projectiles for the smarter ninja who dodged the wires.

Orochimara sent a grin and a thumb up at his almost unstoppable move while her other arm was around a Kumo konuichi's neck. She lifted the girl up and she was peppered with numerous katana strokes, when the girl seemed out of it she dropped her and used her palms to catch a katana, she swung her left leg and it nailed on the side of the man's head. She ran head first into a small group of Kumo and Mountain ninja.

Naruto spun to a stop and got both of his feet back on the ground, and looked at the few ninja that remained, then at the three people he and his godmother had stolen from, "this would go a lot faster if Aoki-chan was here," he said over his shoulder and he shook his arms and purple chemicals dripped down to the tips. He spun on his feet, jumped over a punch and with both of his legs on the attackers head he forcefully brought his head down to meet the unforgiving ground.

"This is a family trip, kid," Orochimara said as she idly poked a konuichi's neck and watched as her last opponent dropped down on the ground, dead. She placed her hands on her hips and watched Naruto's fight against his opponents, which would have ended faster if he was at least allowed to perform one single jutsu, "oh alright, just one jutsu,"

The boy sent her a thumb up and allowed his long senbon to return into his launchers, which were hidden masterfully in his sleeves. He rolled his shoulders and slithered to the side away from an axe kick, bent backwards from an overhead kick and slipped under another ninjas sword slice. He flipped back one to get an accurate number of his attackers. He counted four; two hand-to-hand specialists, one genjutsu user (who was almost useless against him) and one kenjutsu user. He ran with his head lowered to them and they ran at him, he flipped through seven hand seals, _dog, rat, dog, dragon, ram, monkey, bird, "Earth release: Slick sand sink hole,"_ he skidded on his knees under a chop from one of the taijutsu users while at the same time his right hand grazed the ground. Immediately the ground bubbled and sucked in the ninja till it only remained their heads. He raised his right hand and a single three and a half inch senbon slid out, clicking in place; he hovered over them ominously and his goggles glinted in the light as he looked down at them.

Their screams reverberated all around as he finished them off.

Orochimara clapped her hands as Naruto idly kicked a decapitated head, "nicely done, now…what do you propose we do to these three?" she looked at the three civilians that they had stolen from and they began sweating profusely. Naruto turned his head to them, and then from the corner of his vision he saw a two pairs of eyes peek out of the barn they had dropped the horses in. He clenched his sharp teeth and painfully rolled his neck, it cracked loudly,

"I think we've done enough killing for the half hour," the girls had seen him kill enough,

The woman pouted, "Awww that's too bad. Scram," she barked and the three didn't need to be told twice, "now let's go before someone else comes," she walked up to the boy and threw her arm over his shoulder as they walked off towards the 'backdoor' of the hidden village. The boy stuck his hands in his pockets as he supported the sick woman but he couldn't help but inhale deeply,

"You stink of blood," he commented,

She rolled her eyes, "tell me something I don't know, do you know how hard blood is to get out of _these_ clothes?" she huffed childishly, "its torture,"

"You obviously aren't using the right fabric softener," he said as they walked down the lonely road. If they had taken the crossroad behind the barn it would have led straight into main Kumogakure, they had agreed that this was close enough to the centre.

"Oh yeah, well what softener do you use, wise guy?"

"How the heck should I know? My summons do my laundry," he shrugged and laughed when she poked his cheek with her black painted pointer finger nail,

"Mind if I give them _my_ laundry…?"

"I don't mind," she could easily give them her dirty clothes by just giving her snakes who would in turn give his spiders, the only difference between the two summoning realms was the terrain seeing as there spiders and snakes could be found in each realm. Naruto was at least glad that the snakes weren't holding grudges against his spiders for reducing their numbers a little during the Konoha invasion, "speaking of summons, has the white snake elder informed you of Sagi's development?"

The woman hummed in thought and nodded, "he says that she already had high control of her sage chakra before she met him and that he was merely refining it. Do you want to start learning the sage arts?"

"It would be nice if I could use the nature chakra in me for other stuff than keeping my Kyuubi chakra under check," it wasn't painful having that much chakra in him; his, Kyuubi's and nature chakra, and it wasn't painful having them increase from time to time but since he had experimented in almost every aspect of the human and animal world he had always wanted to know what would happen if he combined them all together or individually. He wasn't afraid of turning into a rock from an overload of nature chakra since he was part spider but his movements would slow down exponentially if he took in too much.

"Be patient, young grasshopper; let's focus on your fuinjutsu, ninjutsu and summon control first. When you're a level six and a half and you have more fluidity in your hand seals we can move to sage training," it might have sounded absurd but the woman was a perfectionist, in her eyes Naruto could go even faster with his hand seals, which were in fact considerably faster than most she had seen, and he could be even more efficient in his hand-to-hand combat. Then she wanted to increase his telepathic control over his spiders so that when they moved they would truly be an extension of his body,

"Whatever you say, Mara-chan," he sighed tiredly with his shoulders sagged,

"Exactly," she chirped and poked his cheek again, "now let's talk about chakra,"

He groaned and said, "But I already know about chakra,"

"I know you do, but did you know that you can perform a 'Fire release: Great fireball' with just a drop of your chakra? Or that you can compact your chakra together so tightly that you can manifest it physically in any form you want, especially with the amount of chakra you have. Or even that you can relax all the kinks in your body by circling chakra through your body?"

"No…"

"Of course you didn't, my adorable little godson," she pinched his cheek and began the lecture as they steadily progressed to Uzishio.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Naruto is a what?" Sakura Haruna asked, more like yelled, her long-time friend, Ino Yamanaka,

"A rogue ninja," the blonde girl said to her friend. They were seated in a café on the stools by the counter, the blonde heiress smiled sadly at her friend, "I'm sorry you had to hear that, Forehead," she placed her hand on the pink haired girls shoulder and anticipated the tears that slowly began to pour out of her gem green eyes,

"But-but why?! What did he do?!" she clasped her hands over her heart as more tears fell from her eyes, "this must be a mistake-" Ino had arrived at her house that morning and had opted to take her out for a cup of tea in a business, it was hours after the breakfast rush so the café was relatively empty besides a few customers speckled around and two waitresses that moved around, cleaning the smaller tables,

"Sakura…my dad said he was doing bad things and selling bad things to bad people," she rubbed her shoulder,

"Bad things like what?" the girl blubbered,

"He experimented on people, he sold drugs and he associated with criminals," Ino's heart broke at the state her best friend was in; she had just learnt that her crush, one she had gotten after experiencing Naruto's good manners and pleasant attitude, was one of the leading drug producers in the world,

"He…he must've had a good reason for doing it," the girl looked at Ino frantically, "I mean, you know Naruto; the quiet, nice, clean, polite, smiling, handsome Naruto. The one we knew in the academy, the one that helped us out when we needed it. The _real_ Naruto. He couldn't…he couldn't…he…" she covered her eyes with her hands,

Ino smiled at the girl sympathetically, "my dad also said that he was one of the best ninjas in Konoha and that he never complained if he was given a task, no matter how hard it was,"

Sakura wasn't the only person that had a crush on Naruto, nor was she the only person attracted to him. There were a few girls in their former class that liked him, a few above and few below, and even a few that were already genin. It was why the news of Naruto's defection was a solemn affair all over Konoha, even if he was first known as the Kyuubi kid; no one expected him to be so deep in his darkness. Ino herself felt _something_ for the rogue Uzumaki, she wasn't sure what it was but she felt something.

Then suddenly Sakura looked at her with green fire burning in her eyes, "I have questions,"

"Shoot," the Yamanaka said as she leaned back in surprise,

"Not for you, for Naruto-kun," she hopped off her chair and Ino looked at her like she had lost her mind, "I have questions for Naruto and I am going to have them answered,"

"Umm…forehead, I'm not sure you paid attention to what I said; Naruto went rogue and no one knows where the heck he is. Don't tell me your going rogue too…"

Sakura rolled her eyes and dragged the thin girl out of the café, "of course not but I'm not giving up on Naruto-kun, he must have had a good reason for doing those things,"

"So where are we going…?" they were now walking hurriedly through the upper class residential buildings and Ino was still trying to get her feet under her, it was much too early for all this hurrying,

"To Tsunade-sensei," she answered shortly,

"To do what?"

"If we want to track, capture and bring back Naruto we need the right tools right?"

"Wait… I never said I wanted to-"

"Yes you did, now, we need more training,"

"I never agreed to this," Ino began to frantically try and pry off the girls iron grip on her wrist, extra training with the Hokage was akin to suicide by chakra control exercises, "why don't you meet your sensei? I'm sure he'd like to give extra lessons,"

"I can meet Kakashi-sensei on my teams next team training, Tsunade-sensei is always busy and we're free now so…" she nudged into the Hokage towers front door and stomped up the stairs, Ino still tried to remove Sakura's hand,

"Please!"

"Sensei!" the Haruno yelled as she got in front of the Hokage's office, she ignored Shizune, who had hastily sat up from the desk after a quick nap,

"Sakura please!" the blonde girl shouted but it was too late; they were already in the office and Tsunade was glaring at them,

"What?" her head was throbbing from all the sake she had chugged down last night,

"We want more training,"

"Today's your free day-"

"We don't mind,"

"Speak for yourself!"

"Mind I ask why?" Tsunade said with a raised eyebrow, she was gently rubbing her forehead, "and yes, speak for yourself,"

"We-" she looked at Ino briefly before she corrected herself, "I want to bring Naruto-kun back, no matter what it takes,"

' _Why this? Why today? Why me?'_ she sighed in thought, "if I agree to give you more training…are you ready to face him if you do manage to find him?"

"Hai, sensei,"

"Even if he wants to kill you,"

"Even if he wants to kill me,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

There was another deeper, more personal reason Aoki-chan wasn't allowed to accompany Naruto and Orochimara on their training trip, even though the ronin had pledged her life to protect Naruto.

It was because Orochimara may die from her sickness during the training journey and she wanted her burial to be a family affair. She didn't tell Naruto about her burial but she suspected he already knew. She had already handed all of Otoagakure to Kabuto, who was there with the female samurai, and all of her research, most of her money and physical possessions were passed onto Naruto, even though she had yet to hand the scroll where it was sealed in to him. This didn't mean that she had left Kabuto, Kimimaro and the sound four with just a village full of people; they had gotten a substantial amount of money to maintain Oto and keep it running long enough for them to begin making their own money, through whatever means, she didn't care.

Naruto had examined her personally when he had reached Oto, by her request, and he had confirmed what she had tested herself; that the cancer had accelerated from the stress and hectic atmosphere of killing her former sensei. You see, even though her cancer of the heart was rare, if not never seen before, it grew and expanded based on the increase of adrenaline in the body or rapid increase in the heart rate. The cancer reduced the structural integrity of the walls of the heart, thinned out the blood that passed through it and weakened the muscles that this blood touched; which technically meant that it was cancer of the blood but it remained that it originated from her heart and primarily stayed in the heart, only passing along toxins into the blood it touched. This didn't mean that Orochimara had to refrain from fighting or overthinking, rather the Sannin had mastered the wonderful art of keeping her head in a fight, as seen in their fight with the Kumo and Mountain ninja.

The fact still remained that she only had a year, maybe a year and a half, left before the cancer would fully take over her heart. The result of this would be that her heart would look and act like a pillow case with three compartments (she's part snake), it wouldn't have the strength to keep pumping blood through her body and she would become so immensely weak because of this she would die in approximately half an hour later.

Orochimara turned her head to the side and smiled gently at her godson, he wasn't the little boy that had started the academy that was barely up to her shoulder, now he was a strong, smart and skilled ninja that was a little bit taller than her. He looked at her from the corner of his eyes and smiled back a little, his left arm reached around her own shoulder.

"I've got an idea on how we're going to pass that wall," he said to her as the duo stopped on a hill far away from the wall that covered the ocean leading to Uzishio, they were more like a dot on the horizon as they observed the dozens of ninja patrolling in front of the wall, "but it has to do with a _few_ ninjutsu,"

The woman squinted her eyes as she too watched the rotation of guards, "why not with taijutsu?"

"We both know I'm not ready to face that many ninja, Mara-chan,"

"Ok, what do you have in mind?"

 _Ten minutes later_

A war cry sounded and hundreds of Naruto's and Orochimara's ran down from the hills. It was like watching a tidal wave of blonde and black rushing towards them,

"Prepare yourselves!" seemingly the captain of the wall guards yelled and he drew his tanto, "protect the wall!" he could clearly see that each blonde boy had two one inch senbon in each hand and each black haired woman had standard issue kunai in each hand,

Then the tidal wave clashed against the Kumo ninja, who were fewer in number than the clones but more powerful and jutsu flew from one side to the other. As the chaos ensued Naruto, with a laughing Orochimara, ran underground through the mini war. As they slid under the wall they ran full tilt through the beach and towards the ocean, all that remained was if the whirlpool recognised Naruto as an Uzumaki and Orochimara as his godmother.

Naruto, running at low jounin, walked on the water with blazing speed while he firmly grasped the snake Sannin's left hand in his right. It was instinctive but Naruto knew that he needed to show proof he was part Uzumaki; he bit his hand, between his index and thumb, and clenched his fist strongly as he threw his bloodied fist forward in an arc just as a white and black killer whale jumped out of the water with its mouth wide open. On contact with the boys blood it disappeared in a poof of smoke and he, with his close relative, were summarily sucked into the water violently…

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Midnight,_

 _Konohagakure no Sato,_

"Monkey and Mantis reporting for the midnight shift, Ibiki-sama," two masked ANBU females said formally as they saluted sharply to the head if the I&T department, Ibiki Morino. The bandanna wearing man looked at the two unfamiliar teens with suspicion before he looked at the guard rotation list on his desk, the suspicion lightened when he saw their names,

"Your late," he grunted as he stood up, he walked past through the door and closed it after them,

"We're sorry sir," Monkey muttered,

"Whatever, don't let it happen again," they walked down a corridor where dozens of cells were located, the prisoners were buzzing with murmuring after him until the man barked, "shut it, dirt bags!" silence fell like a bag of rocks thrown from heaven by a kami, "good. Now you two, the guard rotation roster say that you two are to watch over cell level five," the place where drug lords and drug peddlers were contained. They walked up three flights of stairs and stopped before another long corridor of prison cells that led down deep into the darkness, "they're mostly pansy civilians that walked on the wrong edge of the law so they shouldn't be too much trouble, but just in case anything comes up Hokage-sama herself has authorized deadly force to be used to subdue them, make sure you don't kill them though," he stopped in front of cells No 58 and peered into the cell; there were four men who were idly laying on their separate bunk beds, they seemed asleep except a glasses wearing man that was reading a manga, then Ibiki looked into the cell directly opposite and saw two females playing chess and one of them knitting a scarf, she looked to be in her early twenties, "lights out in ten, you pieces of horse shit,"

"Sure," a girl said idly as she moved her knight to knock down her other opponent's king, "I win, again,"

"This is no fun when you keep winning, tomorrow let's do something I want," the loser sulked as she flopped onto her back, the winner shrugged and nodded,

"Did you girls hear me? I said lights out on ten," the special jounin grunted and clenched his fists,

"And I said 'sure', don't get your knickers in a bunch," the winner said as she rolled onto her back and launched up, landing in a perfectly acrobatic stand, she climbed to the top bunk and relaxed. The other girls too went to their beds,

"Good," then he faced the two ANBU in charge of watching the level, "watch these seven especially; they work for that drug lord, Kitsugami Gumo, and their heads are as thick as walnuts but they'll crack soon," he peered into the females cell and a twisted, demented smirk crossed his hard face, "I just know it,"

"Yes sir," the female ninja said sharply,

"I'm off to run a midnight errand, I'll check in in an hour or so," he said and flippantly waved over his shoulder as he went down the long flight of stairs and out of the building.

For the first five minutes the duo marched up and down the corridor but Monkey spied the man actually leave the building she walked back to cell No 58 and pulled off her mask to reveal a girl in her late teens with blue hair and a black over hanging bang, the girls brown eyes stared into the dark cell as she pulled out a flashlight from her pocket and clicked it on, "guys? You awake?"

She heard the men snort awake and grumble, "momma…?" a buff man who laid on the lower bunk muttered,

"Shut up, idiot," the man that had been reading the manga growled as he stomped his foot, shaking the bunk, "what do you want?"

"Kitsugami-sama sent us to break you out," she whispered and bent down to the lock, frowning sharply when she saw that it was a level eight seal, "Yo sis, help me out with this," Mantis knelt down by the seal and removed her own mask to show a blue haired girl that had her own bang being held up neatly by a black clip,

"Go keep watch, we don't know if those girls we knocked out are awake yet," she whispered back and the girl nodded while Jay, the girl with the clip, whipped out a brush and began drawing on the seal. Naruto had allowed them limited connection with his informant in the I&T so that they would know where his workers were being held and when they could strike. They were able to knock out the chunin ANBU that were assigned to the prison section of the I&T and take their identities.

"I thought Kitsugami-sama was going to murder us in here," the girl that was knitting whispered but bit her bottom lip in excitement, "I knew he was a good guy, didn't I tell you," it pays to be loyal, was part of what the workers in the KDC were told after their application to Naruto's corporation was accepted,

"Of course he wouldn't kill you, what made you think he would?" Jay muttered as she added a final swiped to the locking seal, the door clicked open and she rushed to open the females' prison cell,

"Well I never lost faith in Kitsugami-sama," the buff momma's boy grunted as he stepped out of his cell with the other three men, "so how are we going to break out of this building?"

"Just leave that to us," Ray, the twin without a hair clip, assured. They were the only ones in the criminal underworld Hit woman squad that had been sent, this meant that they didn't have reinforcements but they had serious ninja training, "how long can you hold your breathes?" she asked as the cell door for the female's prison swung open, Jay slipped her painting brush into her sleeve and fixed on the stolen ANBU mask, as with her sister,

"Our average is three minutes," the man that read manga said quicker than the female chess whiz; as funny as it sounded it was part of the requirements to work in the KDC, to be able to hold their breathes, among other variety of things. These were mainly requirements for civilian workers who had little to no fighting experience, like these men and women Ray and Jay were breaking out,

"We can work with that," Jay said while she bustled to the window far down the opposite side of the corridor, she began working on the seals there as well; a locking seal as well but one of a lower level since the Hokage didn't expect there to be ninja in her force that would help break out the prisoners, or even a level eight fuinjutsu user who could break a level eight locking seal, which just so happened to be the seals on each cell.

As she sent a thumb up to her sister Ray handed gas masks to each civilian KDC worker to wear and rolled a long sealing scroll on the ground, there were seven seal spirals on the paper, "chose a seal and step on it, hurry,"

Not even wanting to ask what they wanted to do the men and women stepped on the seals and were swallowed up in a vortex of white air. The specialized hit woman rolled up the scroll and hefted it onto her shoulder, ignoring the now added weight as she ran quickly to the window. Her unrecognised fuinjutsu master twin sister grit her teeth and swung her leg at the bars that lined the window, it caved in and exploded outwards, allowing her sealing scroll carrying twin to leap out, she followed her as well.

The alarms blared after them as they disappeared into the deadly forest that surrounded the above ground prison part of the T&I.

Most people assumed that Jiriaya the toad sage was the highest one could get in fuinjutsu, no one wanted to search in the darkness that was the criminal underworld for who was almost as good as him, which was why Jay the fuinjutsu mistress was among the greatly kept secrets in the hit woman squad and she wanted to keep it that way. The twins had accepted to work part time under Naruto while still juggling their duties in the hit woman squad, this meant that they were among the few A ranks in his pay roll that he had given the responsibility of investigating any discrepancy in his business, served as his personal enforcers and maintained general order in each branch. In light of their current situation they were the ones appointed by Naruto to find out who had ratted out one of their warehouse supply locations.

Both girls touched down on the ground onto the roof of an average looking house and flipped into the chimney, they opened their legs and placed their palms on the wall to slow down their descent until they rolled out of the empty fire place into an equally empty room. The wall paper was a soft blue but it was devoid of furniture or appliances, like it was still up for sale. Ray threw open the special storage seal and muttered, _'unseal'_ ; the civilians were pushed out and skidded on the floor in a tangle of limbs,

"Sorry about that, I'm still working out the bugs," Jay said in a quiet but bubbly voice so that the house's neighbours wouldn't hear them, "we just have some questions before we can drop you off in the Wave branch warehouse. From there you will work until Kitsugami-sama sends word that another warehouse in the country has been set up," she motioned for them to relax while she sat down cross legged on the ground, Ray stood by the window to keep watch, allowing her gentle natured sister to take charge of the allied civilian interrogation, "first, do you suspect any former worker in your branch for revealing warehouse your location?"

The workers looked at each other; it wasn't rare to hear that a worker would randomly stop working in a branch but would later hear from their foreman that they had been shifted to another country or warehouse to work, and return after a few weeks. They didn't think that these people were murdered or used for experiments since they had never done anything wrong, plus their families never raised any problems. The people that were temporarily transferred were usually because of a specific specialization and a vacancy due to a worker calling in sick. Though despite all this they did find one situation suspicious,

"Well…" the girl that had been knitting started off and looked at her hesitantly,

"I swear on my name and on Kitsugami-sama's honour that nothing would happen to any of you and neither of your names would be written down anywhere," Jay said with her hands telling her to calm down, her soft brown eyes still reflected on the limited lights shining in from the street lights,

"Usagi Minamoto," the girl continued, "he kept asking our foreman questions,"

"It's true, when he didn't get answers from me the ninja stationed to our warehouse tracked his movements on his breaks," the foreman, the man that had been reading manga continued. The KDC workers worked in rotations, where they were allowed to travel underground back to their home towns/villages; this allowed them to stay with their families and friends but they had signed wavers that allowed the highly ranked ninja stationed to their warehouses to regularly keep track of their movements. The Usagi that the girl had mentioned just thought he was smarter than the ninja, which was his first mistake. His second mistake was trying to get information out of Kitsugami's friends in the lower rungs of the Konoha criminal underworld.

The warehouses did not create their supply of drugs; they merely restocked their storage and supplied them to buyers. If they were to ever change the make-up of a drug it was by a qualified worker who changed that drug into its finished form. Since the main warehouse had been compromised, Naruto had moved his operations to hidden Sound temporarily until his return. In Sound, Kabuto and a few blood clones worked to keep up production, so that the store of drugs in the different warehouses would not reach zero or even less than a few hundred packets per drug. Each worker that had the knowledge to change these drugs (note: not create them) were given special tattoos on their inner upper arm. So, when Usagi went about, claiming that he was one of these special people under the KDC and that he had been personally sent by Kitsugami himself to collect every document he had with his many friends alarm bells rung in their minds. They didn't supply these documents, insisting on seeing the special seal the chief foreman, the man in charge of sharing the supply of drugs from the main warehouse to every single warehouse all over the continent, had on his palm before these delicate documents could be shared.

One of Naruto's friends, Torune Abumi, a crime lord, whom he had bailed from Uchiha prison containment once upon a time had contacted Kitsugami (I'll be calling Naruto this since his workers still don't know his identity _**YET**_ ) to tell him that a person that didn't give his name but told him that he worked in the KDC had asked to see a document on him about when Kitsugami had helped locate his younger sister when she had been kidnapped. Aoki-chan was the person that had spoken to him after he had gotten his message and he replied readily whatever she needed to hear seeing as he recognised her as his bodyguard.

It was too late to do anything of significance; the warehouse had been raided and the ninja stationed there had been killed on duty. The ninja that protected the warehouses were missing ninja so Kitsugami wasn't obligated to send consolation funds to his family, even though the man didn't have any. Though Naruto did invest a few hundred ryu into adding two more A rank missing ninja to each warehouse and increased the security seals around them.

Jay scratched her chin and nodded in thought, "my sister and I were posted at the fire country capital branch warehouse so we don't really know him…but I'm sure we can have Kitsugami-sama send us any information on him," it shouldn't come as a surprise that each worker was registered to his corporation, "would any of you be able to identify him if you see him?" they nodded,

"He's got this small circular scar on his cheek," the buff man contributed,

"Thank you for your help guys, we really appreciate it," the girl smiled and placed her hand on her knees, as if on cue Ray walked to the fire place and removed the logs, then she slid her hands past a small opening in the floorboards and pulled back. She removed five floor boards to reveal a stairwell winding downwards, she pushed the back of the fireplace and it lifted up to give more room for their heads, Jay pointed at the opening over her shoulder, "that leads to a junction in the ground that separates into five directions, there will be signs set up to direct you so when you see the sign for 'Wave country' you follow it. I'm sure you're already familiar with using the KDC underground tunnel,"

"Yeah, thank you, konuichi-san," the foreman said with a bow as he stood up,

"Don't thank me, thank Kitsugami-sama; he was the one that wanted to break you out for not cracking," Ray said as she dusted her hands. She motioned for them to leave while gently making sure they didn't hit their foreheads, "tell the foreman of Wave to a send a switch message when you get there," a switch message was an alternate form of the body switch seal where the person that wanted to send the letter would alert the location by dropping blood into the seal, the seals would glow and the other location had ten minutes to open access or else the seal wouldn't allow the letter to be sent. It _only_ worked with small inanimate objects.

"Hai," the last worker said before he descended down into the well-lit underground tunnel. Ray and Jay watched them disappear before the less playful twin replaced the fireplace floorboard and the dry logs.

The twins took their time to sit down in the middle of the empty home with their legs crossed facing each other; it was the twin without the hairclip that spoke first, "at least now we have a name to go with,"

"Should we wait for Kitsugami-sama to send us info on him or should we go ahead?"

"He said we should kill him and kill him soon, so I think we should go ahead," Ray replied, "besides, we've already gotten his name…that's all we need," the sinister smirk on her face reflected off her twins face.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto groaned quietly as he opened his eyes, his head throbbed softly and his throat was parched. He wiggled his wrists, then his toes, legs, arms and neck. He noticed, as he sat up, that he was in a cave with a single beam of sunlight shining down on him from an opening on the roof; he looked around and rushed without hesitation when he saw his godmother lying on her face seven feet away from him. The woman groaned as he turned her onto her back and he sighed in relief when his preliminary search of her vitals through his 'spider eyes' showed that she was merely winded. He shook his head silently when he saw the look she sent him,

' _Are you hurt?'_

' _I'm fine'_

It wasn't telepathic communication; it was the quick but strong connection they had developed the moment they had stayed up all night chatting all the way back in Konoha. He helped her up and laughed to himself when she pushed him away, puffing out her chest proudly. He placed his goggles on his forehead when he noticed that they couldn't cut through the darkness and spread his extended 'spider senses' (or better put 'spider awareness'). Three spiny spider legs extended out from the small shadow cast below him as the world blinked into black and white, these legs stretched around, poking and prodding the wall like a blind man but they weren't able to pass through the cave walls for some weird reason; the boy screwed his lips to the side in irritation and focused more chakra into the eyes. His vulpine red and black pupils pulsed and dilated to show his concentration as four more shadow legs shot out from his shadow and spread around him, he smirked slightly when he found the cave opening and from what he could tell it led through a tunnel that was about thirty feet long before it exited outside, again his spider awareness was disrupted and shut off.

The woman looked at him with a curiously raised eyebrow, "what's wrong?"

"This cave is seriously messing up my senses," he replied and slapped his palms together into the _ram_ hand seal to fully concentrate his chakra to all of his spider senses, his nose dots included, but his godmother placed her hands on his shoulder and shook her head,

"You're not yet ready for that, you may get a sensory overload. That's deadly you know,"

"Your right, there's an exit right ahead,"

"Let's go," Naruto nodded and walked ahead while he kept his natural senses (the ones he had before he became part spider) vigilant. Just before they could be bathed in sunlight, the fox part of Naruto deeply inhaled and he could only describe the smell in one word,

"Nature,"

They walked out to behold a magnificent waterfall cascading down below the cave mouth, flowing down stream and spreading around till it disappeared from sight. Trees littered before the waterfall and the various animals that were sustained by the water and the trees, as well as a few animals that were sustained by the meat from the herbivores. These animals, ranging from measly field mice to black panthers roamed around. There was a grassy field that stretched out behind the forest around the waterfall where lush green grass grew till they were waist height. But what caught most of their attention was the view beyond the grass field; there were many crumbling buildings organized in neat rows as well as a tall tower, much taller than the houses, that sat in the very middle of these houses with a large red spiral painted on the front, although it cracked and broke apart from age and neglect. Even though the war that had destroyed the great city had long since ended and the invaders had been pushed out by the defences after the very last Uzumaki was killed Uzushiogakure no Sato looked well maintained, more or less. The duo could guess that the view of the city was just a small portion of the island country; they could also guess that the whirlpools still raged and the Uzumaki aquatic summons went back to guarding the island.

Naruto closed his eyes and took in a deep breathe, anticipating all the secrets he was going to discover and all he was going to learn on his training with his godmother, he looked at his godmother when she clasped her hand on his shoulder, "I hope you know that you're going to start making a butt load of shadow clones starting tomorrow," she wanted him to learn everything she could offer and so much more so that they could leave and travel the elemental nations together for the very last time, time was at the essence,

"I'm up for anything you can throw at me, old lady,"

The woman laughed evilly at his jab on her age, "oh we are going to have _**so much fun**_ ," a grin stretched across her face and Naruto actually swallowed thickly at the sight. She threw her arm over his shoulder as they began their steady walk down the stairs at the side of the cave on the waterfall.

The training Orochimara wanted to put Naruto under would have broken any man, maybe even killed them, but, within herself, she knew that Naruto could take it.

The next day was going to be the beginning of hell for the Uzumaki.

A chill went down Naruto's spine as Orochimara opened her mouth and cackled.

 **Authors note**

 **And done. I had fun writing this chapter, I really did. There may be two large time skips in the next chapter, if I ever start writing it, so that I can continue from where chapter one stopped; the fight between Akatsuki and Naruto (and Aoki-chan).**

 **Yes, I acknowledge that I have messed up the timeline a tiny bit but it doesn't change anything really, I just pushed if forward a little. At the time of Tsunade's time skip they weren't the Sannin just yet, but they were still highly respected ninja. Tsunade's reason for being suspicious of Naruto from the onset is simply because he looked and acted too much like Minato, and yes, I also changed the Yondaime's attitude and behaviour too. He still loved Kushina and she still loved him, he was just…different…than in canon. I might have not gotten all the characters behaviours well though…**

 **So…Sakura crushes on Naruto. She isn't my favourite character but I'm not going to use that to beat her into the ground, just like I don't like Kabuto at all but he got all of Otoagakure, you'll see more of him in the next chapter, I think. Back to Sakura, we'll just have to see what will happen if or when she confesses…or if she's going to be the first to confess…**

 **No matter how much this story seems like a harem, IT IS NOT. A harem pairing would kill this story. Imagine this for a minute…** _ **this**_ **Naruto…becoming a** _ **womanizer**_ **… It just doesn't sound possible to me. Plus, I don't like the concept of dividing your love.**

 **To clarify, Naruto has three types of chakra in him; nature chakra, Kyuubi chakra and his chakra. The nature chakra helps regulate the Kyuubi chakra, increasing his own chakra control because of this. Though this doesn't mean that he's unstoppable. You guys should see the results of training under the rogue snake Sannin in the next chapter.**

 **So? What do you think? Any complaint, criticism, opinion or idea can please be sent to me through a PM or in the review, I don't mind either one,**

 **Don't forget to drop a review though; those help me get my creative juices flowing more.**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Yo!**

 **Its Friday again and I'm actually updating. Whoopty doo.**

 **I jumped over Naruto's travels with Orochimara. Why? Because I'm saving those flashbacks for a different time. But for those that want a mental image of how strong Naruto is, think…hmm…think…Seventh Hokage Naruto but with a mallet of sadistic tendencies, a dash of evil and a pinch of insanity (that grows to a barrel of insanity, depending on the situation) minus Hokage, of course. That should do; if this doesn't dissuade you from reading, then you are now part of my family.**

 **Welcome!**

 **Anyway… some characters may come off as OOC and you will be right, but I'm not going to start turning their personalities around, like making Itachi and opera singer or Sasori a porn star or even make Hidan a respectable member of the society (pfft), so relax. But I still don't like Jiraiya so…I won't bash him (too bad).**

 **I decided not to send PMs. Reason? I overthink things and when I send a PM and no response I assume you either hate me or you don't freaking care what I say and ignore it. I don't care either way, I just like getting my gratitude across, that's the kind of family I was raised in and I stand by that policy. With that said;**

 **Shout out to 'lovefanfictions72': Thank! I discovered fanfictions about two years ago and I read as many stories as possible before I started writing mine, so many stories I'm starting to dislike reading new fanfics but hey, it showed me the things other authors haven't written about and I write about it. PLUS! I have wicked awesome friends who help me come up with the general plots. Like a large part of this story was from (not sure you know about it) 'Kilare T'Suna'. Still, thank you very, very much. I appreciate it.**

 **To 'White7Wolf': yeahhhh, I agree with you a bit on that but I'm a big suspense story fan. I like keeping readers in the dark for as long as possible to** _ **somehow**_ **make the reveal** _ **even more**_ **surprising. PLUS! I don't really enjoy writing long stories, long chapters are fine though; I have a lot of things to say and I rush to let it out. Thanks for the review bud; this is the second I've got concerning my story speed (unsurprisingly) and I appreciate you for reminding me about it. Hope your still reading.**

 **Shout out to 'CombustionNation': thank you very much. I'll try my best.**

 **Shout out to 'Scandalf': your right…thank you!**

 **That should be about it.**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER SIX

 _A year and two months later,_

 _Konohagakure graveyard,_

 _Konohagakure no Sato._

Silver senbon launchers glinted on the ground and right next to them was a black backpack under a neatly folded grey and red short sleeved hoodie, there was also a fox ANBU mask that was made into a full headed ski mask to cover the user's hair. Ten feet away from the items a person shrouded by darkness stood and looked down at a freshly dug grave, in his right hand was a shovel that stuck out of the ground. The moon flitted over into the clearing to reveal that the person had thin blonde and a face so pale it almost shone under the moonlight, he was in ankle length black pants and a short sleeved grey shirt that had a thick black stripe going down from the neck to the bottom. His uncombed blonde hair shifted a little under the breeze to reveal four dots on his forehead; going a little further down to show he had two dots on each side of the bridge of his nose. A pair of black goggles hung on his neck as his vulpine red and black eyes looked down at the grave he dug, his face was clean of any visible emotion.

Human life was very fragile. He now finally understood the _pain_ of loss. He now understood the reason why the Konoha ninjas were so appalled to hear of his shadow activities' and why they had initially been adamant to bring him to justice. It wasn't that he didn't know that kidnapping and murdering were evil but rather he had only seen it from the selfish businessman's point of view; he was ending a life to make profit and to better understand the human anatomy. It was a selfish reality now, realizing that all the years he had spent breaking families, even though they were mostly unrecognized members of the society.

Naruto swallowed slightly as he looked up from the grave to the head stone he had crafted by himself; a smooth rectangle with twin snakes winding up the sides, the name written on it was 'Orochimara of the Sannin'. Under the neat name was cursive writing, an epitaph, which read ' _ **Only time will tell how we are remembered**_ ' with the symbol for the snake and spider clan chiselled in. The woman had insisted that when she was finally gone that he shouldn't cry but he couldn't help but a few stray tears slip out of his eyes.

He wasn't going to experiment on anyone anymore. Not…unless he _had_ to do it.

The fourteen and a half year old boy cracked his neck and grits his teeth as he looked at the graves in the main graveyard. The notable ones were the four that sat before the multitude behind them; to the far right his father's name glowed a little under the moon. Even though she had requested to be buried next to him it was as close as he could get without Konoha raising alarms. Naruto turned around and without looking he sealed the shovel into his left bicep as he began putting on his hoodie; he fixed on his goggles and slipped the fox mask over his head. He looked over his shoulder at the grave as he clipped his launchers onto his forearms; he commanded a small senbon to push out a little from one of the five nozzles, he pricked his finger and muttered, _"Summoning jutsu: Smoke spider snakes,"_ a poof in front of him and five grey snakes and five spiders appeared, "protect her with your lives," he said to them and they mutely nodded as they melted into the ground around the grave.

He began walking forward as he whipped out a curved black forearm protector and pushed it onto his left silver launcher, it clicked to show that it was securely on and he did so with the other launcher so that only a single small silver nozzle poked out a little.

The blonde boy turned to the grave one last time and bowed to his godmother before his whole body scattered into hundreds of spiders, skittering quickly into the cover of the darkness of the woods that surrounded the lone grave.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The sound of a horse galloping through the grassy plains of Grass country's countryside could be heard. The rider squinted her eyes as the wind whipped around her; she was a black haired lady with a delicate yet firm beauty, she wore a blaringly white short sleeved mid riff shirt with a long sleeved mesh armour shirt underneath, she also had black knee length shorts and white tights underneath that. Wrapped around her right upper bicep was a red cloth with a black kanji for spider written on it. There was a silver and wooden bow that was crossed over her body with a full quiver of arrows strapped onto her back, and the last notable thing she had was a sheathed katana strapped to her hip. The grassy plain seemed to never end before she saw who she had been looking for lying on his back with a gleaming long sword jammed into the ground next to his head, his backpack lying next to his right leg. He had his fingers weaved together over his belly and a straw in his lips; his red eyes looked on as her horse screeched to a halt,

"Woah!" she shouted and pulled back the reins, the horse cantered forward shortly before he stopped. The lady leaped off her horse swiftly and rushed towards her boss, "Naruto!" she slid on her tights protected knees on the soft, lush grass and came to a stop beside him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said quickly just as she grabbed his face and looked over him critically, "I'm fine, Aoki-chan," he said as he patted her hand as he sat up, "nice horse," he muttered to her as he looked at the white horse she had been riding on,

"Kimimaro-san was kind enough to give him to me as a parting gift," she said as she sat down beside him. They were silent for a few minutes before she spoke again, "I missed you," speaking with a blood clone wasn't as good as speaking to the real person anyways,

The corners of his lips quirked up slightly at that and he replied, "I missed you too,"

"So where now?" they were both rogue warriors and they were both cast off from their families, orphans who had no place to call home.

The boy shrugged and looked at the fox mask in his hands, his goggles was around his neck again, and said, "I don't know. Mara-chan and I were everywhere but not at the same time,"

"What do you mean?"

"We went to every country on the continent but we couldn't stay long because she had little time left. I want to experience these places again, nice or not," he looked at her and smiled widely with his eyes closed, his serrated teeth flashed a little under the sun, "I want to have an adventure,"

"And I will be by your side through them all," she said as she hit her left chest her right fist and held it there for half a minute. There was a part of her that Naruto openly referred to her as her samurai half, where they would keep their oaths and pledges to the death, even if it went against their sense of morality and pride. She had pledged her life to him a long while ago and he was sure she had forgotten about it but apparently she hadn't. Though what she had with Naruto, her relationship with him, was special on a whole new level. Before he had gone with Orochimara they were akin to best friends. She didn't need to have a reason to protect him with her life, but the fact that he cared for her when she was at her lowest was reason enough, even though he had initially threatened to watch her die if she didn't come to work for her.

"Excellent, but I have to warn you about something," he said as he got up and put his mask into his bag, he pulled out the Kusanagi, a weapon Orochimara had passed onto him, and, like magic, he pushed it into his bag but it didn't tear when the handle disappeared inside. The young lady watched him in her kneeling position as he shouldered his bag on and adjusted his goggles over his eyes,

"Yes?"

"We are both wanted by the various laws of our countries but, with all due respect, I'm more wanted," she furrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head to the side in confusion; she was the highest ranking ronin from Iron country with the highest bounty, if anything her boss should be just a little bit above her on the 'wanted radar', he continued, "Mara-chan told me that my tailed beast, Kyuubi no Kitsune, is being sought after by an S rank rogue organisation called the Akatsuki for some crazy take over the world plan. The point is…we may be randomly attacked by S rank ninja in red clouds, are you ready to handle that with me?"

She stood up and nodded, "until my dying breath, Naruto,"

He smiled slightly and raised his right fist to her, she bumped it and they both nodded.

As her boss was travelling around with his family relative she had not been idle. She had made sure that her swordsmanship was as sharp as ever as well as practiced extensively with her bow. She occasionally went on missions with Oto ninja, with the hope that she would cross by Naruto, as well as to make money outside of the KDC. The other thing she had been doing was travelling alone to the branches of the KDC within reach to make sure things were still running smoothly after their CEO's true identity had been revealed to the continent. Most of the workers in the warehouse branches in Iwa and Kumo had quit after hearing that Naruto was the son of the Yondaime and the bloody Uzumaki princess; she acted in his steed, by his request, and made sure that when all the noise of his identity had cooled down they were never rehired. The identity didn't shake too much foundation off Naruto's connections with the underworld seeing as he had made a great first impression with them and his influence had only increased exponentially. Now, Naruto was on the S rank section of the Iwagakure bingo book, considering his skills and his organisation. Iwa were adamant to have his KDC uprooted and burnt to ashes but some of the citizens of Earth country thought differently and still patronized him merely for his products. Aoki-chan, who had personal control over the Kitsugami money storage, had spread her boss' influence wherever she went by helping to fund various legal and illegal shops.

Naruto knew of all she had been doing with respect to his company, since she had been communicating with his with his spider summons, and he approved; it was always nice to have influence in various countries, whether it was small or large.

They walked back to the pathway that led directly to Grass village (in Grass country) and, strangely enough, he slapped the horses butt, frightening the creature and they watched it gallop into the distance, he smiled at his friend, "its healthier to walk," she shrugged and walked beside him down the path until he abruptly stopped as the wind picked up. Aoki-chan quickly unsheathed her katana and sparks fell down as it clashed against a tri-pronged scythe. The thrown weapon was pulled back, showing that it had a chain connected to it, and returned to the hand of the maniacal jashinist. Kakuzu looked at them from beside his partner, both of their Akatsuki cloaks fluttered in the wind, which had slowed down a little.

"Guess we caught up to these little shit heads in time huh Kakuzu," Hidan tittered as a crazy laugh escaped his lips, "I thought leader-sama said they were meant to be dangerous,"

"They are," Kakuzu muttered under his breathe to himself; he knew little to nothing about both of them, this included their skills, abilities or even jutsu list. Even though Pein trusted them to be able to rush head first into the darkness when it came to fighting mysterious opponents, fully trusting their immortality, he was a _little_ cautious to face them. His reason? Aoki-chan had been personally trained by one of the strongest samurai in iron country history and had been appointed by this samurai to become the next Leader of Iron country, making her one of the strongest samurai in history as well, which was no small feat. He could only assume that she wasn't placed as an S rank ronin because of some sense of loyalty the new leader of iron country had to her. This information alone had cost him an arm, a leg and a kidney to attain; house servants of the ruling samurai family were very tight lipped.

Uzumaki Naruto, though, had been personally trained by the mad, rogue snake Sannin herself, who just so happened to be his godmother, and even before that he had been a highly ranked and much sought after ninja in Konoha. As a shinobi of the leaf he had made a name for himself as an unbeatable opponent, whether it came to missions or battles. Outside of Konoha, as a rogue ninja, he had been sighted travelling with Orochimara, being challenged by various ninja and being summarily destroyed at his hands. Make no mistake, Kakuzu, the man that had faced off against the Shodaime Hokage and lived, was not afraid of these teenagers, rather he was thinking of how his reputation would be boosted when the world learnt that he (and Hidan…) was (were) the _**first**_ person (people) to ever defeat them in combat. He subtly began to prepare to release his masks as Naruto remained unafraid, Aoki-chan had her lethally sharp sword crossed over her chest and the sheath in a reverse grip in her left hand.

The spider summoner took both of them in and grinned, "Well look who we have here…I actually thought Kisame and Itachi were the ones coming for me,"

"Sorry to disappoint you but they were busy with _our_ assignment," Kakuzu said; Pein had anticipated that Orochimara would have told Naruto of his capture team so he merely switched the responsibilities. Itachi and Kisame were in Waterfall to capture the seven tails while Kakuzu and Hidan were to capture the nine tails. The zombie brothers didn't care who they had to capture, they were both in it for some sort of glory. Hidan wanted the glory from the battle and Kakuzu wanted the money from Naruto's _extremely_ well sought after silver senbon launchers, spider summon and his goggles; those alone totalled to about three million ryu.

"And who the fuck do you think you are to not expect us, chicken dick?" Hidan yelled. Naruto's slightly glared at the priest but looked back at Kakuzu,

"I want to know how I'll fair against an opponent and you will be the perfect training dummy," his long senbon jutted out of his launchers and he got into his stance, he wanted to use his default number of legs first before he adjusted based on how difficult they were, "you two won't be leaving here alive,"

"You can _try_ ," Kakuzu said with an amused snort,

"Take Hidan, I'll have Kakuzu. Don't let him cut you, understood?"

"Yes sir," she replied.

Both of them blazed over towards their targets and the zombie brothers too ran full tilt towards the two other missing ninjas…

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Life used to be easier when it was just them. They didn't have to worry about anything other than accomplishing their goal; that was before _**he**_ came into the picture. This was the thought of Kabuto Yakushi as he looked at a picture of him and his former mistress, Orochimara of the Sannin. The woman was holding a clipboard and she was using her pen to poke a dark green mutated Venus flytrap, while he was sending a discreet thumb up as he watched her. All they ever spoke about was on reaching her ambition and he didn't mind because he was totally devoted to her but then her godson entered her mind and she changed. She started lessening how she experimented on people, she was now only mildly cold to everyone and her bloodlust reduced fractionally; when Naruto had graduated out of the academy and became a special jounin straight away she had dropped their original ambition and started reading books on how to be a proper role model and parent, he assumed it was to Naruto. She had purposely disregarded her own health to increase the skills of her godson; they had been searching for a way to kill her cancer and grant her immortality, then she stopped to take care of her independent godson. He couldn't go against his mistress so he went with it but when her cancer had taken over half of her heart he interjected, for a brief moment, and begged her to be selfish once again.

The woman had only looked him in the eyes with so much hate and disgust he had sealed his mouth shut and continued his role as her assistant.

The silver haired, bespectacled man swirled the contents of a beaker gently, its purplish green contents moved thinly inside before he added a small drop of a toxic green chemical into the beaker. It turned into a scaly yellow. He paused briefly to stare at what he had created with the resources her _**damn**_ godson had _**gifted**_ him after her death; more than half of the chemicals and mixtures that his mistress had done which he had done as well. He frowned deeply as he kept looking into the gently bubbling mixture before he tilted it into his mouth, his mind already set and his new goal in place.

Kabuto grunted deeply and hunched over, grabbing his stomach in pain as the mixture burned a path through his body, his kekkai genkai fixed him up just as his body was destroyed again. He fell on his knees and yelled in a deep, demonic voice as white scales slowly crept up his body from the very tips of his feet to his head, his canines lengthened and sharpened and his eyes turned midnight black before they seemed to contract together into a tight dot and then they too lengthened into sharp black reptilian pupils. His fingers and toes turned into short but sharp claws as a long, scaly tail grew out from his tail bone. He panted as he dragged his weak body on the ground towards a cabinet, he punched his fist through the wood and grabbed a shiny silver tray. As his eyes cleared and he got a good, clear look at the snake-like monster he had become a maniacal laugh escaped his lips.

Zetsu watched on, his head slowly coming out from the ceiling, as the medic ninja lost his soul to his inner darkness.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

This wasn't going as well as he thought.

Kakuzu moved away from a senbon jab, his Akatsuki robes in tatters and with various cuts all over his body, and kicked the offending arm but the person pulled it back in time and the older ninja had to raise his left forearm to block a ground shattering heel kick from Naruto. The boy pulled away and allowed his senbon to slide back into their launchers as he punched Kakuzu's side, the man grunted and used his left shin to block the attack, then Naruto showed him that he was indeed the son of the Yondaime Hokage, the Yellow Flash; the series of blows to his chest pushed the man back, he lost count after fifty and with a last dextrous spinning kick he was nailed across his face, it was like he was watching himself being beaten up but at the same time he felt the pain, and for the first time in his life he was unable to keep up with his opponent. He hadn't used his masks yet, he had underestimated the blonde brat, but the worst part was that Naruto had not used any jutsu; he was being destroyed by a fourteen year old boy with just taijutsu.

His pride couldn't take it, "you will watch me **rip your heart out** ," he said audibly and Naruto beamed at him, not too winded or strained from the speed he had used, though steam puffed out of his mouth a little,

"So your finally going to take me serious huh?" the boy said as he rubbed his red gloved hands together, "I was starting to feel bad for not going all out too,"

"Stupid brat…you're only making your death even more painful at my hands,"

"If I had a ryu for every time someone told me that, I'd have three ryu," he watched as the man threw off his Akatsuki robe and five masks popped off his back with thick black tendrils following as well to form different looking humanoid creatures, he was glad that Kakuzu at least wrote the kanji for each affinity on the forehead of each mask, it would make it easier, "oh I'm going to have so much fun reproducing your _Earth Grudge Fear_ kekkai genkai. I wonder what will happen if I give your carcass to Papa snake sage to eat…" he wondered aloud, Kakuzu looked like he had enough of the boy undermining him; he charged with all of his masks honing at Naruto. The young jounin leaped over the fire mask, bounced off the lightening mask but dispelled into a cluster of spiders when he was hit in the middle of his back by black strings courtesy of the irate Kakuzu. The spiders scampered away and converged twelve feet away from the man and his masks, Naruto reformed completely and he looked amused.

He had been taught to never be overconfident but he had also been taught that the moment his opponent lost composure he had lost the battle, the best way to go about this was by prodding him with words. Kakuzu looked like he was almost at the point he desired but he had enough of talking; he slapped his palms together and black shadows circled his eyes. Inside him Kyuubi watched, mildly excited for what was coming, as a mass of the boy's blue chakra spun within itself right before his eyes and abruptly stopped, before it divided itself into five parts, each one a different colour symbolizing their affinity. It was a trick Orochimara had helped him perfect where he had to have his chakra at the ready, like he was about to perform a jutsu. The ground around him cracked and he pointed at Kakuzu, and made a 'come at me' motion with the hand.

If Hidan was facing any other ninja, even a high jounin, with a kunai, a tanto or even a katana he would have been faring better than now but he was matched up against a female ronin that was wielding the same sword that was created just for her. He didn't let it keep him down though; he swung his scythe wildly and the ronin clanged her sheath against the weapon, shocking him that it held strong, before she kicked his mid-section with her sole. She slid aside from a downward slice and bent under a kick the man had sent at her; he looked like he had jumped head first into a blender. The upper half of his robe was gone to reveal his black sleeveless vest and there were chunks of his arm that were missing, like they had been sliced off cleanly. Aoki-chan raised her sword to block another downward hack, grunting a little as the crazy priest kept on bringing down the weapon whilst laughing insanely,

"Stay still and taste of my blade, bitch!" he said with wide eyes and a massive grin. She pursed her lips in silent irritation as she spun aside from a wild swing, jabbed her sheath at his neck, which painfully pushed his Adam's apple far inside. He pulled away from her and grabbed his throat; short tittering cackles escaped his lips as he tried to push away the discomfort from the seemingly lax attack. The girl watched him cough out blood with half-lidded eyes, but shocking enough he lunged at her. She merely raised her legendary sword and it impaled the airborne man clean though his stomach. He gasped in surprise and coughed more blood as she smacked the side of his head with her hard sheath, she then kicked her right leg and it smashed against his scythe, which he released when his hands broke under the attack,

"I wonder why you're an S rank," she said with her eyebrows furrowed, watching as his body slowly healed, "it's probably because you're immortal…?"

"Watch what you fucking say you piss ass skank or I will shove my dick so far up you pansy ass you'll be able to taste it," he growled,

" _Lightning pull,"_ she clenched the fist that was holding the sword, that was in turn holding the man up, and tendrils of electricity erupted from the handle and covered them. He yelled as lightning licked his body and his muscles tightened up painfully, so much that he was immobile, she relaxed her hand and the electricity sputtered to a stop,

"…You…bitch…" he said in a low voice, "When I get my…hands on you…I'll chop your fucking limbs off…and fuck you till you die…"

"Such bad language," she tutted quietly, "you should be glad it isn't Naruto your fighting or you will suffer worse pains than death,"

"Oh yeah, ya dick sucking samurai piece of shit, guess it's good I can't die,"

"You can say that," she said with a small smile, _"Wind push,"_ she clenched her hand again and the jashinist's stomach began swelling up, his ribs broke and his lungs swelled up as well, then his arms and legs before-

 _Pop!_

He exploded all around, blood and body parts scattered everywhere. The girl ignored the blood on her formerly immaculate white shirt and tights as she walked forward to where the man's head had landed,

"You shit brained bitch…!" before he could finish with his yell she jammed her sword through his mouth, cutting off his tongue so that it rolled into the back of his mouth and exited from his neck, he gurgled as blood and spit pumped from his mouth and onto her sword, but she merely looked at him before she looked at her master. The blonde scientist was hopping away from multiple balls of water being fired off from the water masks mouth while he engaged Kakuzu in a full on taijutsu fight. He snaked away from a grab for his throat and his left leg went up to hit his opponent but Kakuzu grabbed the leg in his grip and threw Naruto towards his fire mask,

" _Fire release: Dragon fire technique,"_ the mask opened its mouth wide and a flaming red dragon spun out and screamed towards Naruto,

The boy flashed through ten hand seals, _"Water release: Water spider web,"_ he spread his hands after the last hand seal and a hundreds of thin water strings connected to his hands. He pushed them towards the dragon and on contact steam erupted all over them; Kakuzu could hear fighting going on inside the thick steam, fire balls shot from inside in different directions before a sharp snap and a short sizzle before silence. The man smirked a little under his mask, that boy wasn't so tough,

"I knew he was all talk,"

He furrowed his eyebrows when he heard a fast whirring sound. The man swiftly caught the thrown mask that would have cleaved off his head but that was the beginning of his loss; the mask exploded into toxic green smoke and he could feel his skin burn off his bones painfully slowly. The man stifled the pained grunt that racked though him as black threads sprouted out from every sown shut part of his body, his arms reached the ground and spun around in a windmill to blow away the same smoke that would have ended any other normal ninja. That was when he saw Naruto jump out from wherever he had been and drove his knee straight into the face of his defensive mask, his earth mask. On contact it shattered and the boy grabbed the shards of wood, throwing them at the water mask before he flickered out of sight just as the earth mask shards were dodged by the water mask. It was silent and Kakuzu panted a little, trying to heal himself from the body burning smoke he had been distracted with, that was until there was a distinct slicing sound. He looked behind him at his lightning mask and it had been cleaved cleanly in half by the legendary Grass Cutter sword with Naruto grasping it in both of his hands. Kakuzu sent over waves of black threads from his arms and his mouth at him but when they reached the boy, again, exploded into hundreds of spiders and these spiders disappeared in poofs of smoke.

It was when the wind blowing through the gassy plain had increased violently and the laughter that floated through was Aoki-chan, who still had the silently cursing priest jammed on her sword, grateful she did not intervene with her boss' fight. Back when they were still in Konoha Naruto had explained to her something that happened to every Uzumaki in history the moment they had unlocked their chakra; when they were in a fight or battle they considered 'exciting' something known as 'The (Infamous) Uzumaki Battle lust' would fall on them. It was a time the Uzumaki, no matter how small percentage he or she was, would see no other thing but the person he was fighting, any attempt to hold him down would result in either death or critical maiming, but only if the Uzumaki that had fallen into this was stronger. The only way for an Uzumaki to explain this was by saying that there was a 'click' in his brain and he was under the battle lust until his opponent was dead or the Uzumaki had broken every bone in his body. This battle lust could be controlled and channelled into the user's actions and even his or her speech, but if the 'excitement' or hate for the opponent had gotten too strong then it was always best to step out of the way and watch the carnage. This didn't have to do with only the increase of adrenaline in the body but on the person's genuine desire to _**hurt**_ his opponent or opponents. The very first time Uzumaki Kushina had fallen under her battle lust was when she was a genin in her very first chunin exam, which was remarkable since she unlocked her chakra a little while before she entered the academy; she had been pitted against a female Marsh village taijutsu specialist and she had been ground into a pulp but before that could happen she had broken both of her arms and legs fighting back.

Naruto had said that he was fully capable of controlling his battle lust and she knew that, though there were times he allowed it to slip out in a fight. She had witnessed his battle lust only once and it was during their first and only spar, so far. That day she was actually afraid that her trusty katana blade would shatter under his continued onslaught. He had only stopped when she was too exhausted to continue, his goggles were off and she could see as the light red sheen moved off his eyes and he was back to normal, or as normal as Naruto could get.

Right now though, Naruto was bloodthirsty and that meant that he was in his battle lust.

The boy flickered into sight right in front of Kakuzu, slashed him across his chest with the Kusanagi and flickered away, appeared right behind him, sliced again and disappeared. The man's reaction time had been severely stunted by the corrosive smoke that still slowly ate away his body, the only thing keeping him together were his black strings and he wasn't even sure how long they would hold up. He grunted and blood spewed from his mouth as Naruto slashed him behind his neck, not deep enough to cut his spine but deep enough to seriously hurt him. It was like watching him teleport all over the man as he systematically began to break and cut him, a foot met his back and a sharp crack indicated that his spine had shattered. He wildly swung his arms but Naruto had already gone, a punch to his left cheek broke that side of his face, he growled and swung again, this time Naruto didn't flicker away; he grabbed the arm and stepped on Kakuzu's ribs, pushing his leg away until the arm tore off the green eyed man's socket. This action also thrust the injured man away. He dropped the twitching arm and idly twirled the legendary sword as he walked to Kakuzu, the man was dragging himself away from Naruto, the shadows under the boys eyes now stretched down over his cheeks to his chin in a line and he could just barely see blue chakra over Naruto's body. The boy smirked slightly at him and placed the tip of the poisonous sword on his prey's neck, without hesitating he pushed it clean through, ignoring the thread that wiggled and thrashed over his sword. He pushed in again and nailed the man down by his neck into the ground, but Kakuzu still struggled, too weak and eaten up by acid to move.

Naruto knelt down on one knee and smiled at the man, he poked his forehead as the thin sheen of red blood left his eyes, which were under his goggles, and said, "what was that about taking my heart?" the black thread wasn't moving again besides the small twitches but the man glared at him in defiance, his whole face bloody and his body broken, "a sword through your jugular and your still not dead, I have to say, that's very impressive," he sat down with his legs crossed next to the dying man and continued, "I'm going to use you as my message to your comrades," his eyes trailed to the ring on his finger, "and I think I know how to send it…"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Tsunade couldn't believe what she was about to say but, "why the hell did the KDC shut down?"

It had been a year and two since the only workers of the drug empire in their custody were broken out of their cells by unknown ninjas. As the Hokage she wasn't supposed to condone any sort of criminal act in Konoha, she was supposed to be happy that the rogue ninjas corporation had been closed down but she wasn't; for months now she had been looking the other way as doctors in Konoha's hospital and clinics desperately ordered legal drugs that were in rare supply all over the continent but were apparently grown in wherever the KDC operated, and she had also signed some agreements for the KDC to supply them with the special pain killers, chakra replenishing pills, blood replenishing pills, muscle knitting spray, bone setting technology, sleep medication and a whole bunch of other stuff that Naruto had created himself. These drugs reduced the mortality rate of both the civilians and the ninja, they were organic and non-addictive, unlike their illegal counterparts, as well as affordable, they didn't pose any sort of threat to them in any way, she had examined each and every type of drug.

She had even looked the other way when the KDC began getting more confident in their operations and showing up in the day to deliver their ordered drugs and medical equipment to Konoha. Then why the hell did they so suddenly shutdown. It could either be they had decided to hide or they were really gone.

Jiriaya had reported that he couldn't help himself; he had investigated and located a branch warehouse in Hidden Chill. He admitted that there was a little scuffle between him and the three A rank missing ninja that protected the warehouse, he subdued them easily enough but when he had finally gained entry into the warehouse by bypassing the level eight seals surrounding the premises the whole place was empty, not even a single magnifying glass or a measly crumb left behind. He had wanted to interrogate the ninja he had captured but they too were gone. He could be the reason the KDC had shutdown.

The slug Sannin squeezed her pen and smashed her fist down on her desk, the pen stabbed in and jutted from the wooden desk as she tried to get her mind back on track; if her teammate had really been the reason Naruto had either shutdown his corporation or cut off ties with Konoha then she would make sure she squeezed the life out of his body with her bare hands.

"Why did it have to be now?" she whispered as she placed her forehead on her desk. Even though Naruto didn't hide the chemical components of his drugs and the Konoha scientists did in fact know what was contained in them, it all fell on the question of finding the ingredients. Naruto apparently had an unlimited supply of the spring country June flower, which was one of the rarest, most medicinal flowers on the planet. So much so that the people in spring were searching for the elusive flower. Naruto also apparently had a large source of the Suna crescent moon cactus that only appeared during a crescent moon in a remote part of the desert. The sap from the cactus could be refined through a rigorous process and turned into a soothing sort of cream that was able to stave off the killer heat of the desert and keep the person it was on relatively cool. It was the cream that Gaara, the current Kazekage, had ordered from the KDC branch warehouse in his country and the cream that every decent ninja could afford and use on a mission. Plus the smell from the cream was fantastic. It wasn't the only thing the sap could be used for.

It wasn't news to hear that Suna had allied with the KDC.

The thing that got the Sannin scratching her head was that Naruto, apparently, had a substantial source of Cave crawler lilies, which grew in wet and dark environment mainly in Hidden Darkness and Kiriagakure. These flowers were the vital ingredients used in the cure for bull pox, a sort of pox that affected children under the ages of twelve. It wasn't fatal but it could be easily spread, this made it incredibly hard to contain, and this just so happened to be what was happening. Bull pox was like chicken pox, it can never occur twice but it could seriously disfigure and stunt the child's growth if they weren't cured with the shot that contained these elusive cave crawler lilies.

The woman pulled out her pen from the desk and continued writing, throwing the pen away when it didn't work and retrieving a new one. She was writing a letter which would be copied into five more, they were to konoha's allies; she was requesting for them to request for 'Rikuto4252' shots from the KDC branch warehouses in their countries as well as add in a good word for Konoha. She didn't think that Naruto would just randomly shutdown the business that was shooting him to the top of the financial world, not anymore. Tsunade Senju had to swallow her pride to even write the letter but it would be best if the ninja of the next generation were not hunchbacked and droopy eyed, or even the ones coming after that. If she played her cards right (AN: who else is rolling their eyes?) then when she cured the bull pox of the afflicted children and immunized the rest then the bull pox epidemic would be a thing of the past.

The Sannin couldn't send her summon into the snake or spider clan realms because they had been barred from entering, as well as every other summon known to man. She vaguely suspected that those were where these elusive plants and animals were being grown and reared but she couldn't prove it nor was she entitled to demand knowledge of it from Naruto.

"Shizune!"

The door creaked open and the black haired woman popped her head inside, "yes, Tsunade-sama,"

"Call the rookie nine and team Gai," the woman left her teacher to her thoughts to go and assemble the teams she had called for.

Naruto's general whereabouts were still greatly unknown and Orochimara had also disappeared off the map. Not even the location of the rogue samurai friend of Naruto location was known, this fact seemed to frustrate Jiraiya since even his spy network were well in the dark of the boys operations and movement. However the boy was traveling he was doing a very good job of hiding his presence. But news of his accomplishments, as well as Aoki-chan's, weren't unfamiliar; he was now an S rank in over five hidden villages and nothing less than A rank in other villages, or countries. She had not yet raised his rank in the Konoha bingo books but she had warned her ninja to approach with caution if he was ever sighted, no one knew just how much stronger he was now…

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Zetsu swallowed thickly as he looked down at the two Akatsuki membership rings, still connected to the fingers of the former owners, as he bubbled out of the ground. His multi-coloured eyes looked at the total carnage that was the grassy field the fight had occurred, as well as the twitching left foot of the very-much-still-alive-but-incomplete immortal priest. He knew that the boy and his guard were strong but he didn't think they were _this_ strong; he made sure to keep constant tabs on how Naruto grew up and on his skills before he disappeared with Orochimara, and he became confident that knowledge of this would give him, and the others in the Akatsuki, an edge if they were to ever face him; he even went as far as to think that the counters to them were much too easy. This was why he didn't bother to tell Kakuzu and Hidan on his discoveries.

It was too late.

He sighed as the air rippled in front of him on the other side of the fingers on the ground, and three other ninjas emerged. Tobi silently clenched his fists but relaxed them a second later, mutely looking at Zetsu, then at the Kunoichi on his right, Konan, then finally at the stoic and pierced orange haired man, Yahiko, before he said, "it seems we went about this all wrong,"

Konan nodded, "it seems so. I would have thought Kakuzu would have gotten the job done alone," she looked at Zetsu, "check if any of the blood around her is Naruto's," the plant creature nodded and shuffled around, poking the few small puddles of blood around,

"It's obvious the brat isn't to be toyed with, Pein," Tobi added as his lone eye looked up at the sky; they had been summoned to the location of the ring when a foreign source of chakra was channelled into the rings, which was what happens when a non-member touched them. Let it be known that it was very well near impossible for a non-member of the Akatsuki to touch the coveted membership ring only the top rung members had; it was a distress signal.

The puppet body for the rinnegan holder grunted and looked around, the scorch marks, skid marks, blood puddles and few limp black threads on the former battleground signified that Naruto and his partner were indeed not to be trifled with. Zetsu stood up after tasting another shallow puddle and shook his head, meaning Naruto didn't shed any blood, "let's not forget that this is a fourteen year old boy we intend to capture; being named a prodigy and being trained by a Sannin are not warning signs people of our calibre should fear,"

Tobi wanted to yell in outrage; Kakuzu might have not been the strongest member in their organisation but he was strong enough to stand out on his own, and Naruto had just wiped him off the face of the earth. The sharingan user was certain that if he entered the playing field his abilities would be far from expected but with what he was seeing he should still be cautious; Pein should at least increase the capture teams from teams of two to teams of four. He kept his cool and said, "What's going to happen now?" Zetsu turned to look at him, formerly transfixed by a smoking skid mark on the ground, probably acid,

"Zetsu, I want you to find the Kyuubi jinchuriki and document everything you know of him, every last detail. You told me that the boy had had his female samurai friend with him for over three years or so, so I would assume that he is close friends with her; she is his weak spot, the next teams going after him would target her just to distract him before you take him out,"

Zetsu wanted to say that Naruto wasn't exactly the most compassionate of people; that he wouldn't care what happened to Aoki-chan if they killed her but he kept his mouth shut, he had a mission and he would accomplish it.

As Tobi, Konan and Pein teleported back to Ame and Zetsu began the tedious task of tracking the spider summoner, we find Naruto, goggles hanging off his neck, many miles away, walking with his hands behind his head and idly kicking Hidan's head forward like a soccer ball, the mad priest was gurgling curses at him and Aoki busied herself by watching the softly swaying grass at their sides, slowly stroking the front of the hoodie she was wearing. The ronin had been forced to take off her white short sleeved mid riff shirt because it had been soaked with the evil priests blood, leaving her in her long sleeved mesh armour and red and black sports bra. Naruto wasn't having any of it; he had given the girl his grey and red hoodie to wear. It was possibly the best feeling she had ever experienced; her boss cherished her decency and had sacrificed his own hoodie for her to wear, rather than expose herself. As her right hand gripped the top of her sheathed katana her left kept rubbing the hoodies front.

Naruto was busy thinking about the current situation between him and Konoha, as reported by Aoki-chan. The KDC was indeed an illegal organisation that was taking the drug world by storm and that only a small handful of countries accepted his products, he wouldn't deny that it went into his head a little knowing that his organisation was now depended on by these countries; the cash returns were always worth the risk of semi-openly associating with them. He drew the line on providing full services to countries and villages that were or are antagonizing the KDC's operations, like Iwa and Darkness. He especially detested when strangers stuck their nose in his business despite being guilty of these accusations. Aoki-chan had reported that the Chill branch warehouse laboratory had to be deserted after Jiraiya the toad sage had ambushed and defeated the three highly ranked ninjas he paid to protect the branch warehouse. He didn't blame the ninjas for failing in their duty and he was especially relieved to hear that they had been smart enough to create fully powered water clones to pose as themselves while they helped evacuate the warehouse. Naruto believed that one would never know the value of something until it wasn't available anymore and that was the message Aoki-chan had conveyed to the two open Konoha branch warehouses. All of the staff had been relocated to the newly opened branch warehouses close to Hidden Waterfall, Bear country and Water country. The new Water country daimyo had been in open contact with Aoki-chan after the war in Kiri had ended and had pleaded with her to speak to her boss about opening a warehouse in his country to supply medicine to his people at his usual price; in exchange he would help provide ninjas to protect the warehouses. The ronin sympathized with the man, understanding his desperate position, and ordered for a warehouse to be built on a manmade island in the Water country capital. The new Mizukage, appointed a few days after the construction had begun, also requested for her presence and thanked her for accepting the offer to build a branch warehouse in Water country. Money wasn't in high circulation in the country, seeing as most of their resources had gone into the war, so Naruto had written that Aoki-chan slash the prices of his products in half for only Water country citizens until their economy picked up, the guards they got for the warehouse, in a way, helped pay for his products. Waterfall village and Bear country had similar stances; they looked away from what he did while at the same time extended both of their hands to buy his drugs. Business was business and he didn't particularly care if he had to shut down a few warehouses in Earth and Lightning country, after they had given him trouble, so that he could shuffle the workers through the extensive underground tunnel to these new warehouses; he was making his money all the same.

Back to his issue with Konoha. Aoki-chan might have used her discretion to make orders concerning the KDC on his behalf, with his express permission, and he was proud of her initiative to shut down the two warehouses he had on the outskirts of Konoha and the two more he had in fire country. He could already sense the tension this single action had caused; the drugs they had ordered and stored could only last so long before the entire country would begin crying for the warehouses to re-open. Technically speaking, fire country was a regular customer of his products and contributed a fraction of the revenue used to power his business but with the new warehouses opening the profit would increase, plus he had money stored just in case anything bad happened. He would give Konoha a week to decide whether or not they, and by extension the whole country, really wanted his services. He also noted to himself to send messages to every warehouse on the continent to see to it that their drugs didn't reach Konoha.

Now disregarding the thought of Konoha for a while he began thinking about his business as a whole. The Kitsugami Drug Company was now the world's leading drug company, albeit still very much illegal. It was still operated mainly in the underworld but the fact that after he had been revealed to be the CEO and owner of the company it had attracted scrutiny from other countries. People were willing to disregard the illegal things he sold to purchase the legal drugs, which were his highest sales currently. The scientist wouldn't claim to have created a better form of every drug on the planet, but he would claim to have formed a better drug for most of the planets health afflictions, while still making sure that each drug was organic, have limited side-effects and mostly non-addictive to his consumers. Naruto had reached the point that human experiments didn't matter to him for research anymore; he knew more than enough about the human body in various conditions from personal investigation and from his godmother's notes. If he was to experiment on a person again it would mainly be for his sadistic pleasure but he wouldn't do that; he wouldn't use humans in his experiments unless it was vital to his research. He went further to personally engineer better prosthetics and neck braces. He had written some notes on his breakthroughs and given a few of them to some of the resident doctors and physicians working in his branch warehouses so that they would at least know what they were selling. He planned to begin turning the KDC into a global franchise when half of the countries on the continent accepted the company; he already had a logo, which was mainly used as a means of identification by his workers, ninja and samurai guards of each branch warehouse, the KDC had a good reputation in the criminal underworld, they had willing people (mostly from the underworld) who were applying to work for him as well as more highly ranked ninjas applying for guard duty, probably because the ones that were already working as guards told their comrades about the benefits he gave them if and only if they provided quality services and remained loyal to him. He had over three dozen established branch warehouses scattered all over the continent that racked in millions of ryu a week and transferred this profit back to him.

The next foreseeable problem was that he didn't have a main warehouse laboratory to produce the drugs that were ordered in bulk by countries and in small measure by individuals. The main warehouse also served as a place where he could relax, receive the weekly supply of ryu, send out the monthly supply of wages and concentrate on making even more breakthroughs in the field of medicine, and partly in the field of engineering. The stores of drugs in the branch warehouses might finish up in a week's time and the regular profit drop off was in three days. He then decided that he would have to find a nice, secluded place to stay in.

The fourteen year old boy had already accomplished many goals on his list of goals as well as his main goal; merge a human with nature chakra and have both work in harmony, seeing as he was living proof that worked. This could also be applied to his success in the Mizuki beast. Another goal was create contact lenses to help people with toxic chakra induced eye problems, which were quite a lot given the fact that tailed beast holders sometimes go wild, especially when they were inexperienced. The last, main, goals he could tick off his list was being able to use all three chakra types in his body, manifest more legs and partly join the snake and spider summons together, not necessarily in the same summoning realm. He needed a new direction before he went crazy and after ten silent minutes of wondering he looked up into the sky, mildly surprised that it was midday. That was when it came to him.

He beamed at his rogue samurai partner and best friend and the girl looked at him with an eyebrow raised in amusement, still subtly smelling the hoodie she was wearing, "yes, Naruto-sama?"

"I just thought of the craziest thing," she waited to hear him out and he continued, "what do you think…of alternate universes, alternate _dimensions_ …?"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The white snake slowly uncoiled and slithered out of the cave he resided in inside the snake summoning realm. He beheld the rocky terrain he called his home that stretched far into the distance where it ended with a golden bridge made entirely out of seals and nature chakra connected the realm to the spider summoning realm. He could see snakes slither around idly, some speaking to spiders as they did, going about their daily functions. Accepting the foreign summons was one of the hardest things he had done, only doing so when Naruto had passed every single test he had placed before, including beating Manda, the snake boss in battle. At least now he wasn't against the idea of the spiders working with his snakes.

Just then he felt a tremor so low that every other snake paused, most turning to him questionably. He narrowed his eyes and hastily slinked back into his cool cave, illuminated by a few flames on the walls. He stopped at the far end of the cave where a glass orb, held up by three gnarly sticks, glowed a sickly yellow, pulsating chakra every once in a while. The snake elder, a master of controlling his nature chakra, fought his way forward through the ever increasing pulses of nature chakra coming off the orb that were so thick they were pushing him back. The ancient snake finally reached the orb and peered at it intently before a low, angry hiss escaped his scaly lips, his sparkling white scales darkened fractionally and his yellow reptilian eye slits narrowed dangerously.

"How dare he…" he said quietly as he forced the nature chakra seeping from the orb back into its container. An image of a cloaked figure forcefully summoning snakes to tear through two unsuspecting Sound ninjas. The old snake struggled for control as his temper flared, cracking a circle under him as chakra pushed out of his body, "I never gave you permission…I never gave you permission to summon my children…" he could sense a hoard of snakes gathered at the mouth of his cave with a few spiders waiting there as well but he was more concentrated on deciding what to do with the thief that stole the snake summoning ability. From what he was seeing, the person was incredibly skilled in using his newfound ability and in a tiny way it reminded him of Naruto, who also had multiple chakra signatures inside him, except he _**gave**_ Naruto permission to summon his children. He finally reached a decision as he slithered to the multitude of hissing creatures at the front of his cave, they immediately kept quiet as he lifted his head high above them and they lowered theirs as a sign of respect; the white snake sage might have been three times bigger than an anaconda and maybe just as strong as one but he was still considered the great white snake elder, from whom all of them came from, directly or indirectly.

He looked at the spiders carefully and they too lowered their eyes away from his, he breathed in through his nose and said,

"Our integrity as a summoning creatures have been breached by our late summoners apprentice,"

A brave snake ventured a little forward to ask, "What are we going to do, Ji-sama?"

The old, wizened snake looked away in shame, "we can do nothing for now," Kabuto had found a loophole in the summoning contract and used the residue of Orochimaru's essence left on him to add his name to the summoning contract. He could summon snakes and they would mindlessly obey him. His only option was to wait for the nature chakra in the boy to rebel and turn him to stone.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Aoki were nearing the capital of Grass country. The boy turned to the ronin and asked,

"Do you still play that…blowing pipe…?" he asked cautiously and the corners of the girls lips quirked upwards at his bashfulness,

"Blowing pipe?"

He suppressed his frustrated groan, aware that she was trying to get him to make a fool of himself, "you know…that silver thing…you blow that makes…music," he said the last word like it was a foreign object that he still couldn't study, and this was true; Naruto Uzumaki was a boy that knew of the most intimate secrets of the human body, animals and of nature but he had no clue what music was. He was never interested enough in it to actually study it, until Aoki arrived and played her…blowing pipe.

The older fighter watched her boss make complicated movements with his fingers over his mouth and puff out his cheeks till they reddened, "you mean my flute?"

He snapped his fingers and pointed at her, "yes, that. Do you still play your…flute?" it was like he was trying to learn another language with the way he was hesitantly, quietly and carefully pronouncing the name of the instrument,

She nodded and removed the flute from inside her knee high white-but-now-blood-red socks. It was made out of shiny silver with graceful snow leopards carved onto it, each one dancing in place, "I still play my flute,"

"Can you please play it?" he asked and propped his hands back onto the back of his head,

"You mean I should play my blowing pipe?" she asked teasingly and the boy rolled his vulpine eyes, shaded under his goggles, " _this_ blowing pipe?" she made exaggerated pointing gestures at the flute with her right hand, like it was a magic object, " _this_ one?"

"Yes, that one," he said firmly and looked away slightly when she giggled into her hand.

She stopped her laughs and lifted the instrument to her lips, took in a small breathe and began playing a sweet song as the duo walked in a leisurely pace to their first adventure.

 **Authors note**

 **And it's done!**

 **Funny how Naruto could possibly be the best scientist on the planet and the smartest kid ever but he still doesn't know his left from his right when it comes to musical instruments.**

 **For all intent and purposes Naruto is a sociopath and psychopath, but not completely. He just has different priorities than other people.**

 **What do you think of Kabuto? He reengineered nature chakra from the residual chakra Orochimara left on him, making him Orochimara-Kabuto. After seeing what Naruto can do to a full grown S rank 'immortal', do you think he stands a threat against him?**

 **What of Tobi? Do you think, with all his perks and abilities, he is able to defeat the 'undefeated' Kyuubi jinchuriki? Maybe, who knows?**

 **Now, onto Naruto's relationship with Aoki-chan (yes, that is what she is called in the bingo books. I'm not just adding the '-chan' for some sort of sick, twisted, perverted pleasure y'know…). They have a…unique relationship. They won't exactly be a couple but I have something special in store for them.**

 **Notice how dating and pairings haven't been the main focus of this story? Disregarding Sakura (not that I have anything against her).**

 **Onto less exciting news, this story has about two more chapters before its really done. BUT! BUT! BUT! I've decided to split the second part of this story into two; one where he continues in the 'Narutoverse' and the other where he continues in another universe. Think of it as the two stories being a continuation of this one. I've decided to do that because I had some ideas on how to continue this story after it's finished, and the idea of the other universe continuation has been killing me slowly since chapter two of this one.**

 **This is all factoring in whether or not I'm not side tracked by other things.**

 **Next chapter should contain one or two of his adventures with Aoki-chan before we tie it all together with the story continuing from the beginning; the fight with Kisame and Tobi. It's going to be exciting.**

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed reading this as I enjoyed writing it. If you really did enjoy this story I have even more stories you should give a try. They will not disappoint.**

 **Kindly drop a review on what you think, that would be greatly appreciated. Plus it boosts my morale when I see a kind review, or even a helpful review. Foll and fav also help though…so…**

 **Next story update or new story post will be on Sunday.**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yo!**

 **Thank you all for your amazing reviews! Keep 'em coming, keep 'em coming.**

 **In this chapter Naruto is going to do something he has NEVER done before. Cookies for the person or people that can guess what he does. There will be a few flashbacks, maybe two or three, so be prepared. Also, Aoki-chan still works under Naruto and she was raised in a proper samurai home. So, despite how close she is with Naruto, she still calls him 'boss' or 'sir' as well as 'Naruto'.**

 **A warning before you read, I will be changing a lot of things about the fourth great ninja war and a few abilities, like Zetsu clones. Keep an open mind while reading.**

 **I hope you enjoy reading it…**

CHAPTER 7

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Naruto asked as he sceptically looked down at the snowy landscape sparsely populated by decrepit huts that operated as shops. He squinted his red eyes, hidden under his goggles, at the massive mountain that the 'market town' was named after. He shared a sceptical look with his samurai friend, as they stood on another mountain which was much shorter than mount Yomisaki,

Aoki-chan turned the large map in her hands over and looked at the sun, hidden behind a few clouds, to confirm if they were really north, she looked down at her map again and nodded resolutely, "I'm positive this is Yomisaki market town,"

About two hours ago, the duo had been on the run from an entire hidden village after they had taken a tour of their hidden underground library.

 _Flashback_

Naruto hopped backwards from a mallet and was forced to disperse into multiple spiders as he sensed a sword cutting through the air towards his spine. The spiders reassembled beside the female ronin, who was expertly deflecting and countering sword strokes from the sea of humanity before them, all of whom were wearing Kumo forehead protectors. He grabbed her hand and she didn't strike because she was very much aware of what his hand felt like at that point and she used that cue to stab her sword into the ground and yell,

" _Earth pulse!"_

The ground rippled under them violently and threw the thousands of ninjas raining surrounding them away, giving the duo a chance to run. Naruto, dragging the female by her hand towards the exit, ignored the accusing look his friend was sending him as they blurred to their destination. Rows and rows of shelves and books that reached high onto the roof blurred around them as they tried to navigate their way back to where they had come from.

"I knew this was a bad idea!" she shouted over the pained groans and outraged screams, "I freaking told you, Naruto!" she could see the ninjas wall running towards them on the shelves, hundreds of them surging from behind them and a few coming from in front,

"Yell at me later, Aoki-chan," he grunted before a grin and a loud hoot left his mouth, "but isn't this fun?!"

For a fraction of a second her eyes turned red, "no it isn't!"

"Hey, hey, hey, remember, you _did_ ask me what I wanted for my birthday," he said with a lax roll of his eyes,

"I thought you were joking…" her screaming reduced fractionally before it went up again, "but-but-but what sort of birthday present is finding out the secret of the Raikage's _lightning armour_?" Naruto shot two senbon downwards and they clanged against the shiny tiles and impaled their intended target,

"I like being spontaneous, Aoki-chan, you know that," he said and looked over his shoulder with large doey eyes, even with subtly wobbling lips, "don't you like my unpredictability…?" he idly sent three kicks to three cloud ninjas that dove at him from the ceiling,

The ronin blushed a little and looked away, "whatever,"

Naruto smiled and used his other hand to poke her reddening cheeks, "your birthday is in a few months. I swear on my name and my summoning scroll that you can do anything you want that day. Deal?"

She looked at him sharply, then away again, allowing him to drag her through the obnoxiously large room, shelves of books spread out far and wide with which they were running through, "deal," she muttered back

The secret Kumogakure underground library was located at the epicentre of the village, under the Raikage's tower and dangerously deep under the ground with about twenty seven separate rooms and five levels going downwards, each one with records of Kumo, as well as the worlds, history and accomplishments as well as secret techniques. Only chunin and higher were able to _**know**_ about it but ANBU and the Raikage were the only ones allowed access, plus the few chunin that maintained the library. The sort of defences placed on and inside the underground library could be split into three types; sensors, alarms and locks. All of them were level at least level seven; up to five different locks on the entrance door located under the Kage's desk, each one had to opened at the very same time or the alarms would go off, this led to stairs winding downwards two flights with sensory-detection seal combinations peppering the walls that detected the if the person walking down the stairs was authorised, if not the alarms would sound. The stairs landed in the first room, an empty space with white paint that had a larger than life locking seal at the very end of the room, which had a special name tag-seal that had to be swiped over it, otherwise the person breaking in would be struck with lighting chakra that would freeze them in place until ninjas came to (violently) apprehend him or her. From there it was simply using the same methods getting that far to traipse from room to room, level to level, and touring around the super-secret library. This was possibly the strongest and most secure location in the entire country and it was suicide to break into it. Once a team of rogue Sand ninjas attempted to break in, after interrogating one of the chunin in charge of the library, and were stopped before they could even gain entry into the Kage's tower. The horrors the missing ninjas underwent, the torture they had to endure before they were generously allowed to die could only be left for the imagination.

The fact that the only entrance and exit to the library was located in the Raikage's office should dissuade any sane person from even thinking about it.

But Naruto couldn't _really_ be classified as sane.

To Naruto, sneaking into the building was child's play; Konoha had even better security and he snuck in when he was twelve. The problem lay on his ronin friend, who just so happened to refuse any and every ninja art lesson he wanted to give her, preferring the way of the samurai, or as close to the way of the samurai in her case, so he had a problem sneaking her in as well, especially when she was adamant that something would go wrong and their heads would be on the chopping block. He still managed to convince her enough that what he wanted for his birthday was the secret to the current Kage's _lightning armour_. He broke into the office at the time the Raikage was half way to Iron country to attend the Kage's summit and the eight and two tails were on a mission to Turtle island. There was a big gap in the villages defence because of this, and Naruto was made aware of it from the informants his KDC ninja and samurai guards had. He bypassed the seal on the door and picked a seal key card from the chunin receptionist, who left it on his desk, as he looked down to look for the schedule, replacing it with an identical Henge'd cardboard card. From that point all it took to opening the five locking seals on the trap door under the Kage's desk was making five lightning clones and unlocking it at once. From there it was all smooth sailing; Naruto distracted his bodyguard with the wonders of all the books around while he subtly looked for the _lightning armour creation_ scroll. Thankfully (depending on how you look at it) he found the scroll, removed every trap seal on it and stuffed it in his pockets before the alarm bells sounded when Naruto realized that he had forgotten to check whether removing the trap seals would activate the alarms.

On purpose.

A large grin stretched on Naruto's face and dragging his partner through the air as she used her free hand to deflect thrown weapons, Naruto now had a four inch long senbon in his grasp as he slashed the few ninjas that managed to overtake them, with help from channelling lightning chakra into their limbs. Naruto spun around, positioning the ronin in front of him so that she could yell out one of her swords jutsu,

" _Earth: Leopard bullets!"_ she clenched her sword in her left hand and levelled it on the oncoming ninjas blocking the elevator to the first floor directly under the Kage's desk. The result was brownish chakra coating the sword and bullets shaped as claws shot from the tips, five every second, and impaled the ninjas after they valiantly attempted to block the attacks. She ignored his look when she refused to let him lead, "I'm not destroying any of these scrolls," and then she added, "And I'm supposed to be protecting _you_ , not the other way around,"

He got his feet back under him and ran with her, disregarding the fact that they were still holding hands, "I was trying to be a gentleman,"

She scoffed, "we both know it's too late for that," she skidded into the metal box with her boss and Naruto kicked the control panel, destroying the buttons, and flowing through five one handed hand seals,

" _Summoning jutsu: Ninja art: Web of lies,"_ and from the palm of his hands a sparkling white web blasted out and covered the entrance of the elevator, blocking it off from the other ninjas, and as the web hardened it turned black; they could already hear the ninjas frantically hacking through it. They could see the small, fingernail sized spiders with red beeping abdomens sluggishly walking on his summoned web with a constant trail of silk coming out of their abdomens to maintain the structural integrity of the web wall for as long as possible. Naruto ran up the walls, Aoki-chan's right hand still in his left, and a senbon slipped out from his right sandal, under his foot, and he flipped backwards back onto the ground, carving cleanly through the metal roof of the elevator and forcing the samurai to flip with him just so he wouldn't twist her arm. He stomped his foot and the acid eroding through the roof opened wide enough for his guard to jump up first and forcing, this time for him, to leap up as well so that she wouldn't tear his arm off with her iron grip. The duo ran up the walls as fast as they could jointly do and Naruto took the liberty of kicking open the closed door of the elevator level above the one they had just escaped from. He smiled and made a flourished movement at it, "after you," she rolled her eyes and dragged him with her after her, "see? I can be a gentleman,"

"It doesn't count if you have to kick the door open," they stopped abruptly when they beheld the ninjas standing at the ready to intercept them, not forgetting about the ninjas struggling to break his web,

He leaned to her and whispered from the side of his lips, staring at the ninjas standing in front of him, each one first looking hesitant at who they were about to attack before they tried to steel their faces, "it counts,"

She whispered back, "no it doesn't,"

"Yes it does,"

"No it doesn't," she heatedly whispered,

"We'll talk about this later," he said with finality. He held his right hand above his head, palm open, and a glowing ball of blue chakra inflated in his hands, this seemed to be the signal for the Kumo ninjas to attack but it was too late, _"Web bomb: level four,"_

 _Flashback end_

If the Hidden Cloud wanted to have any more reason to hate Uzumaki Naruto, the Nine Tailed Spider, then breaking into their top secret library and basically making a fool of their defences was reason enough. This was also including the fact that Orochimara and Naruto had made a fool out of the village previously on their training journey to Uzushio.

Aoki-chan rolled up the map and perched it under her arms as she held up a pair of binoculars to her eyes, Naruto's goggles spun within themselves as they zoomed in, the ronin nodded, "I'm very sure this is the place,"

Naruto pricked his thumb with a single senbon from his silver launchers and a moment later a small poof of smoke later and a grey spider as large as a horse skittered out of the chakra smoke and knelt down with all eight legs in front of Naruto. Naruto offered his hand to his partner and she gratefully took it as she mounted on his summons while he jumped on and sat with both legs crossed on the spiders large head, leaving the wide and partially flat abdomen for his partner, "go," he simply said and the spider began his hasty run to Yomisaki market town,

This was when the female ronin behind him, also sitting with her legs but with her legendary sword on her lap, her bow crossed over her body and her quiver of arrows on her back, poked the backpack on his back to get his attention and said, "the sooner we settle down you can begin the preparations," her lips were curved upwards in a small smile and her face glowed when he sighed, merely looking over his shoulder for a fraction of a second before he looked back forward to where his summons was taking them to,

"Sure, sure, I'll start right away,"

 _Flashback_

 _Thirty minutes after escaping Kumo_

 _Border of Spring country_

Naruto was usually very well composed. It was what people had come to know him for most of all, even more than they acknowledged his skill and strength. As a genin he was able to stare Kakashi and Gai in the eyes and have the presence of mind to deduce what they intended to do to him as well as form a plan to succeed. He had once gone up against the four tails jinchuriki after he and his godmother had passed through Iwa during their training journey without panicking and had that same calm and collected presence of mind to craft a way of stunting the superior ninjas speed for him to run away with Orochimara, who was less than happy running away. That was a story for another time.

Right now though, Naruto was struggling to keep his face as calm as possible and even throwing in a friendly smile at his female partner, "you want me to do what?"

Small droplets of sweat built up on his forehead as the black haired beauty stepped closer to him, as if to intimidate him, which wasn't working seeing as she was a head shorter than him and he had just been too accustomed to seeing her, and repeated, "For my birthday I want you to take me on a date," he leaned away when she raised her right pointer finger and jabbed his chest, "you will be on your best behaviour, it would be the best day in my life and kami help you if I don't enjoy it,"

He smirked a little and poked her forehead, "and what would you do if you don't have fun?"

"I would make every day in your life a living hell and you know I can do that," she growled under her breathe and looked to his side, behind the tree they were hiding behind, at the numerous ninjas that were blazing just past it, none the wiser of their presence. The spiders that covered the tree in a dome of interlocking limbs and fangs, each on melding with the environment, hid them perfectly while they had to super suppress their chakra,

"Is that so?" he whispered and his smirk widened, exposing his serrated teeth and he looked down on her, making his goggles glint in the limited light of the spiders camouflage. She nodded and stood strong under his scrutiny, "you're going to make me suffer? Are you sure about that?"

"Positive," she puffed out her chest bravely,

"And you're so sure I won't kill you?" he cocked his head to the side as he placed a hand on her shoulder but she looked back at him, even when he removed his goggles and placed them on his forehead, exposing his horrifying vulpine eyes to further intimidate her,

It wasn't working, "you're not going to kill me," she said and her voice didn't waver, not even in the slightest, but a small blush grew spread over her nose at the hand on her shoulder. His eyes darkened evilly, an impressive feat because his eyes were always dark with evil, and he gently ran his thumb over her neck, raised it up so that he tucked her black hair over her ear. The standoff lasted a few long minutes, even as the Kumo ninjas returned to their village before the highly ranked Uzumaki leaned back and sighed tiredly,

"Fine," he waved his right hand and the spiders covering the tree and them fell onto the ground, rushing towards him and entering his pants legs before they returned to their summoning realm through a seal just over his calf,

"Good," she sighed in relief and turned around, her swords sheath in her hand and a skip in her step,

"But I'm not sorry about the whole lightning armour thing," he said to her loudly as he laxly walked with her with his hands behind his head,

"I've already forgotten about that," she said and smiled up at him, he looked down at her from the corner of his eyes with a raised eyebrow. His right hand reached into the bag on his back and brought out a map, he handed it to her,

"We're going to Yomisaki market town in Spring country,"

"Mind I ask why?" she said as she rolled open the map, not caring that he was in a sour mood,

"It'll be our new base until all the Akatsuki are dead," it wasn't that he was going to go out of his way and kill them; rather he had been informed that the ninja world was gearing towards war subtly. There was unrest all over; Gaara the one tails holder had died after his beast had been extracted but brought back by a sacrifice from an old Suna elder, the two and eight tails were in hiding by order of their Kage, the three tailed beast had disappeared, the four and five tails had been kidnapped, the six tails was in hiding, the seven tails had been kidnapped, and he, the nine tails, was having the time of his life with his samurai best friend.

"Then after they're dead?"

"I've always liked to live in Kiri, before the war I mean. What do you think?"

"If you like the place, then so do I,"

They had to quickly round up their continental adventure because of the threat of the Akatsuki as well as the constant reminder that Naruto needed to find a definite place to call the home base of the KDC, if not it would be incredibly hard producing drugs and even harder transporting all the money he had, even though they were in small squares by the thousand.

 _Flashback end_

The market town was sparsely populated, with the distance between residential houses being more than fifteen feet apart, though the market aspect of the town was merely a circular mesh of kiosks. It was pitifully small, making the spider summoner wonder if the place was called market village out of some sort of twisted humour. Usually, tall mountains like Yomisaki invited tourists and funds but with Spring country and Mountain country having the most tall mountains, Yomisaki was all but forgotten, leaving it to be populated by traders who couldn't afford the tax of selling in better locations like Spring country's capital. It was obvious that there were more people than there were houses and shops. He felt eyes on him and his partner as they passed through the village on his summons; he looked to his immediate right, at a deplorable brick house, and grinned widely with his eyes closed, flashing his scary spider-like teeth for the peepers to see and this seemed to scare them enough for them to close the curtain. Thankfully his goggles were still on. They reached the base of the mountain the town was named after and Naruto made a quick motion over his shoulder at Aoki-chan and she stuck onto the back of the spider with her chakra. Sensing this and taking it as a cue the summons leaped onto the surface of the mountain and blazed upwards, the air began getting thinner and thinner with each ascent and this didn't seem to phase Naruto but something in his head clicked and he fell on his back so that he was looking up at his friend, who was struggling to breathe but was too stubborn to call his attention about it. Her face was red and she looked down at him with his coal black eyes, clearly showing her fight to stay conscious. He smirked and folded his hands behind his head, amused that she actually intended to fight against her urge to breathe rather than ask for his help. Her cheeks were puffed out with air and her hands fisted the short body hair on the top of spider's abdomen. They stayed like that, him finding it funny that she didn't want to ask for his help and her, barely conscious. He finally caved when she slowly began leaning forward with her eyes closed, as if to kiss him, and he caught her by her forehead with his pointer finger holding her up and he used the other hand to snake into the side of the bag. He miraculously pulled out his blank mask, though without the black head cover, and pushed it to her face; the girl quickly took in numerous deep breathes and got enough strength to hold the mask to her face. He allowed her to use his pointer finger to support her for a few minutes until he was sure she was strong enough to support herself. He removed his hand and placed both of them back behind his head. The mask had a store of clean oxygen in it in case he ever gassed up a room; it could also serve as a breathing apparatus for mountain climbers,

"Thank you, sir," she muttered, switching to addressing him formally, and bowed to him slightly, then remembering that he was on his back and looking up at her, so she had to stop herself from bowing fully, like she usually did, because he was still on his back,

"I can't kill you remember? That includes letting the altitude kill you," he smiled widely at her and masterfully kept himself securely on the large spiders back as it ran up the mountains slanting surface, "why didn't you want me to help you?" he asked with a curiously raised eyebrow,

Aoki-chan secured the mask on her face and gripped her sword again, "I didn't need your help,"

Naruto scoffed and crossed his right leg over his left, "need I remind you, you almost lost consciousness not five seconds ago. Oxygen is important, you know,"

"Then why don't _you_ need it?"

"The nature chakra in me makes it easier to breathe in this altitude," he looked at her dully and poked her forehead, "that doesn't apply to you," she looked away from him up the mountain they were climbing,

"Why don't you ask me for help?" she said under her breathe, still not looking at him,

"I rarely need it," he answered honestly,

"Then why did you hire me? You obviously don't need me around to keep you alive,"

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows as he caught her shaky voice; he sat up and turned around to her. He shuffled closer so that he was about two feet away and sat down with his legs crossed, he silently stared at her and she masterfully avoided his eyes before he said, "believe it or not…I _need_ you," she snorted and he nodded, "yes, I do,"

"For what?" she looked at him and he could see her black eyes glaze over from the eyeholes of his mask, "you plan on using me for some sort of elaborate experiment? You want to sell me? You want to use my organs? You want to take my sword?" she asked heatedly and clasped her weapon tightly at the last one, "what purpose do I serve to the infamous nine tailed spider?"

He looked surprised at her outburst, "Aoki-chan… _I need you_ -"

"For what? Just-just tell me!" The boy looked like he was struggling to get the words out of his mouth, the girl grabbed his shoulder firmly when he looked away from her, forcing his eyes back on her, she gently removed the goggles over his eyes and placed it between them, "just tell me…you can trust me,"

"I do trust you. I trust you more than you can even believe,"

"Then why can't you tell me the reason I'm even with you?" she begged, "why do you keep me alive-"

"Because I need you!" he shouted. He realized what he had said and looked down at his hands, which were shaking, "you…keep me sane and you are my stability. I enjoy every day I am with you," his hands shook even more and he clenched them tightly, "when we first met…I wanted you alive just to be Kitsugami's guard, to make his guise more believable, and I wanted to kill you when I was exposed. I wanted to poison you and watch you _**die**_ , just to destroy these feelings so it would stop hurting me but-but I didn't. I couldn't. Then…then…then I broke my first rule…I got too attached to you and now I don't know what I'll do if you're not with me or if something happens to you," he shrugged weakly and closed his eyes, "one moment I want to impress you, another I want to make you happy and I always want to see you smile," the girls mouth dropped at his confession and she unconsciously placed her hands on his own, "I…I…I need you, Aoki-chan," he frowned heavily at his vulnerable state; he didn't like it. It was a raging inferno that had been building up in his chest ever since the day he had given the girl her bow was being forced out of his mouth and he didn't like it. He liked being in control and he liked knowing what he was doing. She gently clasped his fisted hands and he relaxed them enough for her hands to slip into his own, but he still had his eyes closed in resignation, "I need you, Aoki-chan," no use fighting it anymore; he felt relieved that he had at least got that much out. There was so much he wanted to say to her but he didn't want to say it,

"Naruto-" she whispered gently as her hands held his more firmly and smiled at him but he interrupted her,

"We're here," he pulled his hands away and rolled off the spider as it came to an abrupt halt. She got off and was about to rush to him but with the way he kept his back to her as he looked up at the large cave entrance at the side of the mountain she stood away. He wasn't physically showing his turmoil of emotion; rather he was waging an intense internal battle against himself. He breathed in deeply and spun around to her, a wide, obviously fake, smile on his lips as he opened his arms, "let's clean this place up," waves and waves of spiders left his trousers and rushed into the caves, eating away the sides to smoothen it out and create more room for them till the interior of the cave was a massive, spacious and neatly made smooth box, similar in size to his first warehouse laboratory. They were not close to the peak of the mountain, rather they were on the only cave entrance there, and it was as cold as it looked and as cold as they imagined; they could even see their breathes and they had to swirl chakra through their bodies to stay warm.

The swordswoman looked down in disappointment and passed him into the cave to use her wind control to sweep away the rocks that escaped the tiny spiders off the frigid mountain while, allowing both of them time to think.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"I think I've got a clue where Naruto is hiding," Jiriaya the toad sage whispered to his female teammate as she sat down on her designated seat among the other four hidden village leaders, with the leader of Iron country, Mifune, sitting at the head of the table,

"Can't that wait?" she whispered back, carefully looking around and stopping at two of the village leaders that hated Konoha the most; Iwa because of Minato and Kumo because of Naruto, _not_ because of Kushina. They lived in a world where information was a highly valued commodity and this commodity travelled almost as fast as electricity. That said, it shouldn't come as a surprise that five days ago Kumo had been successfully infiltrated by the last Namikaze and said Namikaze also managed to escape with his friend without either of them sustaining any sort of injury. For the second time, Naruto had broken into Kumo and escaped unharmed. From the logical standpoint, A, the Raikage, should not blame Konoha for what one of their missing ninjas had done but from the illogical perspective he needed someone tangible and available to place all his deep seated anger on and Tsunade, who was almost literally the embodiment of Konoha, seeing as she was the one representing the village, was going to be the person he blamed. The dark skinned and heavily muscled man scowled at the woman and placed both of his gauntlet hands on the table to further emphasize what he intended to do if he was not in neutral territory. The blonde Sannin couldn't care in the least what he thought, or any of them thought, but her eyes were fixed firmly on Mizukage, Mei Terumi, and the playful woman winked at her coyly for her attention but Tsunade still looked at her suspiciously. Her reason for this was because it was now common knowledge that Kiriagakure, and all of Water country, were openly allied to the KDC, even going as far as to place the KDC's logo, a small one, under their village's symbol on their backs. They weren't the only village or country to do this seeing as Suna, Spring country, Bear country and a host of many more places openly patronized the KDC, but Kiri stood out among them for going the extra mile.

There was a large warehouse stationed in Kiri and a smaller warehouse in the capital of the country on a man-made island. Water country had suffered during the war and they were in drastic need for help and it was understandable that when they had asked the KDC for help, and this help was provided without hassle, they would be indebted to the organisation, so much so that there were now registered Kiri ninjas that guarded the warehouses in Water country. Regardless of this Tsunade couldn't help but feel disgust that Kiri had chosen that path instead of seeking help from her old allies.

Hidden Mist was still recuperating from the bloody civil war and distrust among their shinobi was still in the air but the main place they united was in safeguarding the KDC warehouses in their territory; the KDC was supplying them with drugs, medical technology and, at a small scale, food and water for their less privileged civilians who seemed to have suffered more during the war. The illegal organisation had gone above and beyond for them and the result would be for Water country to do the same. Instinctively, the blonde Hokage knew that it wasn't Naruto that had sanctioned his warehouses to provide food and water but his more compassionate friend. It wasn't in his style to do that. Speaking of compassionate, a few months ago Naruto had sent a letter to her telling that he was going to give Konoha one more chance to allow his company to work, or else they would withdraw all support, including influencing their best customers to withdraw their own support from them. This was after she had pleaded for the Kazekage to speak to the KDC CEO on her behalf, seeing as she couldn't get contact with him but close allies of the KDC were privy to his whereabouts. Gaara agreed to do this but on the condition that she divert one quarter of the missions sent to them from Fire country capital to Sunagakure. The woman begrudgingly accepted and Gaara summarily sent a message to Naruto and three days later a letter was sent back, which the Kazekage sent to the Hokage. Now, bull pox epidemic ravaging Konoha had been squashed. Though the woman still held some resentment for Naruto for withholding information on where he got the herbs and roots for his medicine, even though she knew that Naruto wasn't entitled to tell her.

She looked around and the Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara, sent her a polite nod and she returned it; behind him his siblings, Temari and Kankuro, stayed alert and made sure that their hands were ready to pull out their weapons. Tsunade had chosen Jiriaya and Yamato to be her bodyguards, the latter because of his high control of his Wood release; it would be a great advantage if she was able to drain dry the chakra of anyone that attacked.

The Kage were patiently waiting for their host to begin their meeting, and ten minutes after they had all settled and their guards were stationed behind their leaders, the man raised his hand for their attention and they looked at him,

"The Tsuchikage, Oonoki, requested I call this meeting in my country to discuss the rising threat of an organisation hell bent on destroying all we know and love-"

"No, he called this meeting because he lost both of his jinchuriki," A grunted and met the harsh but silent glare of the fat nosed Kage,

"Are you going to deny that both of your jinchuriki were attacked by these S ranked missing ninjas?" the old man retorted, "or that sand kid didn't have his beast unsealed?"

"Order!" Mifune called and the bickering stopped, "regardless of his ulterior motives, the trouble brewing cannot be ignored. We are continually receiving news of this organisations exploits and each on is troubling as the last," he began counting on his fingers, "they took the one, three, four, five and six tails," he motioned at the Mizukage, "they orchestrated the civil war in Kiri. And the seven tails has disappeared with no trace,"

"I say Konoha took the seven tails," Oonoki growled and smashed his fist on the solid table, "trying to compensate for their lost jinchuriki,"

"I refute that claim; what purpose would Konoha gain from taking another tailed beast?" Tsunade replied coolly with a delicately raised eyebrow,

"It was the Kyuubi that made you strong! Do you deny that?!" the old man yelled and Mifune cut in before the female Sannin could reply,

"Enough. Senseless arguments would get us nowhere,"

"You are calling my claims senseless?" the dust release user asked lowly, as if he was trying to understand how anyone in the room would call him senseless,

The samurai remained un-intimidated, "yes because as far as I know the nine tails is not anti-Konoha; he killed two of this organisations ninjas, Kakuzu and Hidan, and he has chosen to keep his Kitsugami Drug Company active in Konoha," he turned to Tsunade, "or am I wrong?" she shook her head,

"No,"

"Do you know where this boy is?" Mifune asked, "Since he can kill two then he can kill more of them," the woman shook her head,

"We don't need the Kyuubi brat to kill those S rank; I have ninjas in my ranks that are capable of destroying them," A said, and his guards, Samui and Darui, silently agreed,

"If I may," Gaara piped up and drew their attention, "I'm in regular correspondence with Naruto-san and he has made it known to me that he will not actively seek out this organisation,"

"And there's your answer. The brat is too afraid to fight them; I bet he barely won against Kakuzu and Hidan," Oonoki grumbled,

"On the contrary, my sister, Aoki-chan, works for him and I have no doubt she participated in their deaths," Mifune said stoically, "I need not emphasize what she is capable of. But I digress; we need to form a united front and end this threat before it gets out of hand, we don't know why that organisation is gathering all those tailed beasts but I am sure that their intentions are not peaceful-"

"And your right, old man," a deep voice intoned from the far end of the room on another table, away from the Kage's assembled at the other side, "our intentions are not peaceful," a vortex of air swirled on the spot the voice had come from and a man wearing an orange mask styled in a spiral so as to emphasize his lone for which the kamui had come from appeared before them, sitting laxly on the table. His black cloak with red clouds symbolized who he was and the Kage's all abruptly got their feet, ready for a fight.

All his plans had already been set in motion, all his pawns had been influenced and were geared to fight and all he had to do was light the match that would set the world ablaze.

The air was taunt with tension and this tension thickened as Obito Uchiha declared war on the elemental nations.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

It had taken the duo a full day of effort, shadow clones and spider/snake summons to get their temporary home ready but they were finally done. The walls of the cave were now smoothed down and were painted red and grey, to give the place a sort of warmth and the rocks the tiny spiders ate were spat back out as a sort of liquid rock so that they would form separate rooms; a main laboratory, two bedrooms, a small kitchen and a bathroom with a complex drainage system that made us of the mountains slope to lead the water down _into_ the ground at the base of the mountain, a store room and finally a large laboratory suited up with all of his equipment and chemicals. The interior had been painted red and grey, mostly to give the feeling of warmth. He had set up a generator outside the cave, protected by a small steel house augmented by seals to withstand the cold and the wind, to provide electricity in the cave, which at this point didn't look like a cave or feel like a cave, especially with the wooden boards they set up to cover the wide open mouth of the cave, also supporting it with seals. Naruto had taken the liberty of using a seal he called _atmospheric support seal_ which basically circled around the mountain, specifically the area the cave was located, and ensured replicated the effect of the atmosphere on ground level, besides the warmth; it mostly made the place liveable without Naruto's gas masks. The seal could run infinitely because it was powered by nature chakra, which could be found anywhere if the person looked well enough. There was level ground for a few yards in front of the mouth of the cave, giving both of them space to exercise.

It was their home for now.

The problem was that to get down the mountain they had to make use of summons and Aoki-chan had to wear a mask until they got to the base of the mountain; it was a sacrifice they had to make. The top of the mountain was a secured location, no sane person would want to climb that high, and it was private; exactly what Naruto wanted and what he was used to.

The blonde scientist stood at the top of the mountain with his black haired ronin friend beside him, admiring their home from outside. He was wearing a red and grey hoodie with a black short sleeved shirt underneath and black ninja pants, he had bandages wrapped around his ankles, leading into his black shinobi sandals. While his partner wore a white hoodie with the symbol for the spider clan stitched onto her right upper arm, her pants were equally white as well as her sandals. She also had her sword strapped to her side and her bow and arrow across her torso. The duo weren't yet back to speaking comfortably with each other but they weren't out rightly ignoring each other. Naruto was trying his best to get her back to her comfort zone around him.

The boy didn't have a sheath for his grass cutter blade, so he chose to leave it in his backpack, which was on his back. He sent the girl a small smile as he sat down at the edge of the mountain, just close to the seals protection, and she followed suit, and they both watched the sunset.

The next day came slowly and Naruto leaped out of his bed, perky and eager to get the day started. It was four in the morning and he sat down on his desk, clean as a whistle, and sent out several letters to his branch warehouses with his spider and snake summons, as well as to the brothel in Konoha, thanking them for their services and sealing in several thousands of ryu as their payment. He needed to summon a few shadow clones to get the writing done and he needed to summon a few more to begin their research into breaking the barriers of the universe. Aoki-chan woke up at six in the morning sharp, mainly because she did her regular night rounds to watch their new home before leaving it for a snake summon. Groggily, she greeted her superior before she too went to the bathroom to freshen up. When she came out, Naruto gave her the task of familiarizing herself with the environment and its occupants (in Yomisaki market town), saying that it wouldn't do if they didn't at least try to know their new neighbours. Deep down Aoki-chan knew that although it seemed like he didn't want her around him he just didn't want her to be idle; just like how they went about their business in Konoha, she would work not just as his bodyguard but as his spokesperson as well.

Although Aoki-chan was closely affiliated to Naruto she didn't want to sign her name on the spider summoning scroll, saying that she had lasted long enough without the summons and she would last longer without them, so Naruto had to summon a large snake to take her down the mountain to the market town.

The state of things at the base of the mountain was deplorable; houses were falling apart, the market was an eyesore and the people were ill prepared for the cold their region of the country was in, seeing as even though the former daimyo of the country, Doton, had been overthrown by his niece, Koyuki Kazahana, the new daimyo changed Snow country to Spring country, destroying the machine that made the country as cold as it was named, though this didn't affect all of the country because the country bordered Frigid country. Yomisaki market town was bordering Frigid country, so it didn't enjoy the privileges of the change of government. Aoki-chan was renown across the continent as the 'Broken child' and the 'Dark Angel of the Five Elements', so she had already been seen as a ruthless person not to be messed with, and this was further reinforced by her battle style. Few knew her as kind, this included her boss, her adopted brother and a few of the people in Iron country, and seeing the deplorable lives the people were living and how they each went out of their way to welcome her touched something in her. These people had been forgotten by the world because they were not able to keep up with its fast paced and ever developing nature, mostly because their government had forgotten them first. They were all poor but they lived and worked as a family, sharing what they had and could, even though there weren't that many customers that patronized their market.

The dark angel felt obligated to help them and she immediately rushed back up the mountain with the large snake, much to the wonder of the people, and dragged Naruto down.

It was a day of surprise for the people of Yomisaki; they were being treated to many firsts in just one day. The first time they had seen a samurai, the first time they had seen a ninja that wasn't trying to steal from them, the first time they had seen a snake that size, the first time they had seen a teenager with a mouthful of serrated teeth, which he wasn't afraid to flash, the first time they had met someone that freely gave them money with the only condition being they shouldn't tell anyone they were living there, and many more firsts. The snow that almost constantly fell around Yomisaki was harsh and, from Aoki-chan's prodding, Naruto summoned spiders, each one bearing clothes they had crafted and shared it to the multitude. The sheer quality of the clothing had them question whether or not it was kami that had come to aid them. 

The reason Naruto was being so out of character was because when he Aoki-chan had slammed back into their new home, out of breathe and desperate for his attention, and dragged him all the way down the mountain, on a summons of course, he listened to her rant. From what he could deduce from her rush of words she really wanted to help the people of Yomisaki, and he had already opened up to her that making her happy was his top priority. It was hard to believe, seeing as he was considered blood thirsty and selfish, but he had learnt to just accept those feelings instead of allowing them to kill him. Though he did need a lot of convincing to do it,

"Boss, just look at them; they need help," the samurai implored and motioned at them, Naruto looked over them with unconvinced and dull eyes,

"It isn't our jobs to help them, leave it to their government," he said with a flippant wave and was about to ascend the mountain again but the ronin grabbed his hand and he paused,

"You'll gain so much from helping them, think about it," she said and stroked a tender part of his attention masterfully, knowing that he would forever look at the personal gains,

The KDC boss rolled his eyes, "and what will I get from helping them?"

She thought and hesitantly replied, "A…warm feeling in your chest…?"

Naruto shook his head and patted her head, "I'm sure we'll both survive if I don't get that warm feeling," he said it like he was talking to a toddler and the usual blush spread across her nose from the contact,

"What about their support?" she hastily added,

"Nearly half of the continent is supporting me, through my company but still me," he replied back,

She still refused to let go of his hand, "how about this? If this place is properly set up and run then a percentage of their profits would go to you," the boy still didn't look convinced and for good reason too; he had so much money that he didn't care about it. Money from his organisation, money his godmother had willed to him, which he was still gathering from all of the different banks she deposited them in, money he got as goodwill from countries he set up KDC warehouses in and the money he made in Konoha from all his other dirty deals. He could easily buy the most expensive but sophisticated equipment and weapons, such as his silver senbon launchers, the launchers curved black stealth guards and Aoki-chan's bow and arrows. Not forgetting the fact that he didn't need to buy clothes because his primary summons, the spider clan, was able to create any kind of cloth with any texture that was of excellent quality. He needed to set apart approximately ten billion ryu to pay all of his workers across the continent, which included the guards as well and the bonuses for stellar work. This also included the fact that he was in close contact with all of his branch so that he was aware of what was in desperate need there, whether it was a broken door knob to more mosquito repellent for those in his tropical branches. This was all mostly through a trusted foreman in charge of all the warehouses productivity and sales, who constantly travelled around, with his family or not, to keep an eye on the branches. Everyone was happy and loyal as long as they kept getting their monthly wages. Needless to say Uzumaki Naruto was not in dire need for money. The black haired girl continued, "It would boost your reputation as a person that can make a town prosper if he gave it a thought," that convinced him.

Aoki-chan was unofficially his company's public relations officer. This meant that she helped him deal with delicate matters such as providing support to countries and villages so as to boost the KDC's image and further their goals of making it an international franchise. Left to him, his first instinct would be to kill any aggressor that went against his business and this was what he would have done to Konoha if the samurai had not stepped in before him and withdrew his the warehouse branches in Fire country, to open konoha's eyes that even though the KDC was illegal they couldn't deny how much they had helped them and also a warning to the other countries he had branch warehouses in that he wouldn't be partial seeing as he used his home village as an example to all. Naruto had come to realize that if he wanted a wider customer base he needed to show a little bit of restraint in his heavy handedness; he wasn't brought up in the most compassionate of environments so he wasn't used to lending a helping hand just because he could, and he was faced with the reality that people would take any means necessary to destroy him if he did not show that the KDC wasn't all bad. Aoki-chan though, although brought up in a strict samurai household in a family that valued strength and loyalty, had experienced a large measure of compassion in her life. Bifune might have been a formal man but he loved all of his children equally, showing them this with various acts of kindness and she being the only female and performing better than her older brothers he had lessened his strictness on her and allowed her room to grow on her own. His trust in her was one of the many acts of kindness to her.

Her partially well rounded upbringing was what made Naruto trust a fair portion of control of his business to her and he mostly trusted her judgement for the most part because she had never disappointed him in anything he set her to do. Whether on a mission or to deal with a problem in a branch, the results she brought back to him were always satisfying.

So, once again, he decided to trust her judgement.

"Fine, we'll spruce this place up but we're not helping them sell their stuff," he said and the girl bowed deeply,

"That's all I ask, boss," he ruffled her hair before he turned to the multitude of people eagerly looking at him,

"Let's get this place cleaned up," he bent onto the snowy ground and drew a fairly large summoning circle. When he was done he added a drop of his blood on it and a poof of smoke erupted from the seal, five white, lion sized spiders with the kanji for 'Cloth maker' drawn on their abdomens marched out of the smoke, each one hefting large sealing scrolls between two of their front legs. Theses spiders laid the scrolls on the ground and unrolled them in tandem, revealing several storage seals drawn neatly on it. Aoki-chan, who couldn't make clones, was the one to hand them the clothes and the people profusely thanked them, while the spiders looked down at them with bright red eyes, silent as night, watched on in astonishment as their masters servant handed out clothes. Naruto walked past them, through the eager crowd of very appreciative people to the middle of the town, ignoring the people that grovelled as he passed them and the older residents that eagerly wanted to shake his hands, but withdrew their hands as he hissed at them. He got to the centre of the town and a few people turned to look at him, the others clamouring to get clothes from the giant spiders and the kind teenager. The boy hummed to himself as he examined the layout of the houses and assumed that the houses were built to face each other but leave a wide berth between them for a mass of people to walk through, this space between the houses led further down to two iron rods that had been jammed into the ground, probably to symbolize the entrance of the town.

Although Naruto had been privileged enough to be able to use all five nature transformations from training in all, control his beasts chakra, nature chakra and an array of other things he wasn't able to use Wood release. So he wasn't able to erect houses out of the ground like he had heard a drunken Kakashi rant about when he was a six year old child posing as a rich adult. Yamato Tenzo was the wood release users 'name' and Naruto still hadn't met him; he wasn't able to steal even a finger nail from this 'Yamato' so he could replicate the legendary kekkai genkai, but he was content with what he could do. The nine tailed spider held up a _half ram_ hand seal, _"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu,"_ over thirty identical clones of his were summoned out of numerous plumes of smoke, attracting the eyes of the towns people, and Naruto commanded them to search for trees. If they found trees they would seal them into storage seals and bring them back.

The display for the next six hours was proof enough that if Naruto put his mind to something it would result in staggering success, just like with his spider clan. The clones had to travel south of the town to a warmer part of Spring country known for its vegetation and dense forests, luckily for them; or else they would have been forced to travel even further down. The trees were brought back and the original Naruto summoned even more clones and they began constructions, making them realize that as the clones were searching for trees Naruto had been busy crafting a blueprint for the houses he wanted to build. It was a basic structure that had two spacious bedrooms, two bathrooms inside the house, a living room, a fully furnished kitchen, parlour and a front porch facing their neighbours across the street. The added clones, supported by a few snakes to carry the chopped up wood, built the houses. For each completed house the real Naruto drew special reinforcement seals that supported the structure for as long as there was nature chakra in the air. He had been taught this seal by his godmother in Whirlpool village; they mad the wood as strong as steel, able to take a full on chakra enhanced punch and still be able to stay on the ground. The effect was like with electricity; part of the strength in the punch was pushed harmlessly into the ground while the rest was deflected back to the attacker. This only worked if the attacker was using chakra, if not it would merely injure the person. Naruto used a tunnelling jutsu to create a deep well where clean water could be pumped out. This water was connected to the house via plastic pipes at the backs of the houses, so if they wanted water in their rooms they had to lug it into the house by themselves. He placed sure that the roofs of the house were made out of wood as well that, because of the seal, couldn't rot from rain or exposure to the elements. He crafted three wind turbines from wood as well, smoothening it out and painting it red, to provide electricity to the various houses. The last thing he did was form fences to provide the individual houses with privacy.

It was exhausting work but he was done; the people of Yomisaki watched as their town was recreated by a total stranger. Gratitude couldn't be expressed with mere words and Naruto tiredly ignored them and slumped onto the ground with his back leaning on the fence of a random house; they flocked around him, noisily thanking him while he rested and replenished his lost chakra. He closed his eyes and channelled the noise out, Aoki-chan ushered the families into their houses, allowing her master to rest, while she personally dealt with the first ever threat to their new home by herself.

Six Konoha missing ninjas that had heard the clamour from a distance and took it as an opportunity to take money from weaker civilians chose to travel to Yomisaki. They were summarily dispatched of by the samurai.

 _One week later_

The world was indeed on fire.

Identical white plant men were attacking villages, usually eating a dead ninja or swallowing small drops of blood from living ninjas and taking his form to further their attacks. The remaining Akatsuki had been paired to reduce the morale of ninjas from the other villages by displaying their full strengths against them. Worldwide, formerly dead ninjas of unbelievable calibre were being brought back and they were added to the ranks of the Akatsuki, each one controlled by a mysterious man who focused their attacks with the aim of finding the nine tails. Most suspected that the strongest of them was yet to be summoned and this fearful prospect was what united the countries of the continent. Battles had been fought with these undead warrior and they had been mostly lost because the undead were immediately revived, leaving the only other option for the allied ninjas to seal them away. This would have been easier if not for the frequent attacks from the Akatsuki, who had already captured the seven and two tails in one of their many campaigns.

The two tails had been captured and her beast removed after she had been intercepted on her way to Waterfall by Sasori and Deidera to provide support after hearing of the minor villages trouble with active ninjas. She had been with her team and made the ultimate sacrifice of telling them to retreat while she held the S rank off. The seven tails had been tracked to be hiding and working in a KDC branch house in Wave country. The green haired girl had been working there since the day Waterfall threw her away out of fear that their village would be attacked by the Akatsuki. She had been sighted and summarily captured by the Akatsuki after their civilian spies, or puppets, notified her of her presence. This had happened on the day Naruto had finally been located. Her captors had been the six paths of Pein and Konan.

All the nations of the world were afraid that the end was near; the dead were being brought back, white plant clones were impersonating ninjas and killing ranks from within and the countries were losing their frantic fight for survival against legends in the history books and S rank warriors. Their hope returned when Itachi Uchiha defected from the organisation and returned to Konoha, but it was fizzling when they realized his deteriorating health, despite that he was also participating in the war in their side.

The only tailed beasts left were the eight and nine tails and the former was in the thick of the fight. The latter, even though he was aware that the world was crumbling at the seams, had shown no interest in the war. He spent his days telling stories in houses in front of a large crowd of eager listeners, he was content albeit bored that so far he had no rival in strength. The world could utilize his medicine however they wanted, and this freedom had transformed his products into highly valued commodities, especially because they had been able to bring people out of the hospital faster than their own drugs. The KDC had gone even further underground in their dealing, with each warehouse covered in triple A rank illusions, and the delivery people now strictly used the underground tunnels and railways to move their goods to their intended destination. The owner of the drug empire had assumed that that would be enough help to turn the tide of the war, he didn't need to necessarily go out of his way to fight, but he was wrong. He was still desperately needed, not just his drugs or his technology; the nations against the nine tails chose to swallow their pride and send out a few of their ninjas to search and retrieve the elusive jinchuriki to plead with him to help them fight for the world's survival.

The Konoha ninjas found him first…

…But so did Obito and Kisame…

And this is where we find ourselves.

 _ **Flashback end**_

The hand-to-hand fight between Naruto and Obito was eerily similar to watching a dance. Both of their offensive, counters and defensive moves melded into each other smoothly, creating an opportunity for them to try again but usually resulted in the same thing. It was hauntingly like his battle with Naruto's father, and the end result of that was a _Rasengan_ to the back and weeks of recuperation, and despite his effort of trying to bypass Naruto's blocks the boy would always see it coming and adjust accordingly, all with an infuriating toothy grin on the boy's face.

The Uchiha clashed his forearm against Naruto's and slapped the knee to his stomach back down while driving his own knee towards Naruto's side but the teen spun away from the attack and slashed his pincers at the limb, which was hastily withdrawn. The Uzumaki cut upwards, forcing the masked man to make himself intangible; this surprised Naruto for a fraction of a second, long enough for Obito to flip backwards and squarely drive his foot under Naruto's chin. The spider summoner grunted and flipped backwards as well but when he landed he still had the excited grin on his face, a grin that sent shivers down Jiraiya's spine because it was scarily similar to Minato's grin during a fast paced fight; crazed and blood thirsty. The Namikaze learnt it from his older sister. The blonde eagerly blurred right back to the Uchiha, even before the man had gotten his feet back on the ground, and did something that shocked all the watchers, something that his unpredictability managed to bypass the other fighter's sharingan. He flickered to Obito, as his toes touched the ground, and punched forward, the man began the motions for slapping the attack away but was surprised to see that he merely slapped the long senbon Naruto was using away, a needle Naruto shot to him to draw most of his attention. He leaned away from the fist that wafted across his mask but not away from the unforgiving elbow Naruto smashed into his face.

The cracking sound was horrifying to all the listeners and the follow up spinning heel kick to the dazed Uchiha's neck was equally bone chilling to watch. The orange masked man careened away but got his right hand under him to flip back to his feet. He faced Naruto and idly dusted his shoulder, showing how much it didn't hurt but this only got Naruto's eyes even more deranged with battle lust.

"How about going all out, stranger? That way I won't feel bad killing you," the blonde called to his opponent, his hands itching to punch the masked stranger,

"You're still a brat. A brat that had gotten a taste of powerful chakra and thinks he's invincible; there will be no point fighting you at full strength," Obito answered coolly as his cloak fluttered weakly in the low winds of the town, he held up his right hand and clenched it for Naruto to see, "but I advise you to take me seriously, anything less than your best would be your end,"

Naruto hummed in thought and scratched his chin before he shook his head negatively, "you're not worth it. I've met grave robbers better than you,"

This comment obviously touched a small part of Obito, though he remained relatively cool headed, "then come and feel the strength of an Uchiha," he opened his hand and motioned Naruto to come at him, "if you dare,"

The teenage spider summoner cracked his neck and commanded his long senbon to slide back into his launcher, before he flashed back to his opponent, faster than any untrained eye could catch. The blurring fight continued, each driving the other back but still holding back a measure; Obito was not using all of his strength and Naruto was not using Kyuubi's chakra or nature chakra, or the combination, merely his own chakra.

Further away from them, the fight between Kisame and Aoki-chan, which on the surface would looked like the more experienced swordsman was winning, was in reality the opposite. With each sword clash and each strain for dominance, Kisame noticed something strange, which was made even clearer when the ground beneath his feet began rebelling against him. The Omnyojin, the all-elemental sword, was a legendary weapon that bestowed its chosen user the control of every element, whether it was from the sword or from the user. Every part of the sword could be used, even its sheathe, and stories had been told that if the user had enough control over the sword he was able to command a demon from the underworld to come to his aid, seeing as the sword had been forged in the mountains of demon country out of obsidian steel, which was an evil, cursed metal, the hide of a demon dragon, the tears of a saintly fire country monk and the blood sacrifice of the high priest, while the sheath had been made from a demon wolf's hide. It was said that if a person, other than the person the sword chose, touched the sword their souls would be sucked into the sword and used to power it, this also applied to people the swordsman killed, further pushing the idea that the wielder could summon demons at will. Only two people in history had been recorded using the sword, the first was a featureless man from Kiriagakure, usually thought to be the home of legendary blades, before the person had willingly handed the blade to the priests of demon country. Many, many years later it had been stolen by a woman who connected the blade with her child by making a blood sacrifice agreement with the god of death for reasons people were unaware of.

Aoki-chan didn't know why she had been given the cursed sword but that fact never stopped her from fully mastering it when she was thirteen and about to be named leader of Iron country. Her sword could indeed use souls to power it if she didn't want to use her own chakra, and she was able to give control of the blade to anyone of her choice (Naruto). Her only hurdle till date being she had to endure the torture of the pitiful moans and whispers of the souls in her sword speaking to her all at once and struggling to get free.

Kisame had never fought against an Omnyojin user before so he was almost running in the dark, almost being he had slain plenty of samurai and he believed that since the dark angel was a samurai she would be predictable. He was obviously wrong; first because she used her sheathe to fight as well, samurai didn't do that, second was that she used more elemental attacks than a regular samurai, and the last reason was that she was spending _way_ too much time around Naruto.

Although most of the swords abilities were a mystery to Kisame, mainly because all that went against it weren't alive anymore, one outstanding precaution stood out; don't _**ever**_ let the blade touch you, even if it's a minor graze. Just like with Samehada.

Smoke wafted off the blade and the sounds of torment flittered in the air as she blocked an attack from Kisame. He commanded his sword to suck out the chakra but it remained unresponsive seeing as she wasn't using chakra, merely the souls of the slain stored in her blade. He hacked and slashed at her savagely, using his superior strength to push her backwards into a more defensive and desperate position, until they were close to ten feet from the base of the mountain before she turned on the offensive. She twirled her sheathe dextrously and swiped it towards his left leg but he blocked it easily, she jabbed her weapon at his chest and he was forced to lean away, watching, impressed, as her weapon sliced through his cloak and barely grazed his shirt, though not touching his skin. Aoki-chan followed up with a firm foot planted in his stomach and using that foot as a purchase to run up his torso and smashing her knee into his chin. This was the time Kisame chose to fully unleash his sword; Samehada frilled out dangerously and bent in his grip towards the samurai as she prepared to leap away from him after her last attack. She grit her teeth in effort and his concentration was thrown off when the ground beneath his feet shifted away from the mountain a full foot, allowing her to flip backwards over the sentient sword.

The strongest of the seven swordsmen of the mist commanded his weapon to shorten back to its normal length, but its purple scales remained dangerously frilled.

He stood up straight and sharply smirked at the ronin as she got into a defensive stance, making sure to lick the small trickle of blood that came from his mouth, "you're not half bad for a samurai," she didn't reply, only tightening her stance, "I've always wanted to know what would happen if Samehada broke your sword, but sadly we're just here to cripple you beyond repair," he blinked once and she was in front of him, her blade rising upwards diagonally, but he blocked it swiftly against his own sword. He anticipated her sheathe coming into play and summarily used the sole of his right foot to block it, he smirked cockily after this but frowned when the girls focused expression morphed into a playful one,

"Got you,"

Kisame looked down at his position and realized that his left foot was swallowed up into the ground to his ankle, he then quickly realized another thing; both of his legs were far apart. It was much too late to dodge the pillar of earth that rocketed out of the ground between his legs and solidly struck his groin. His eyes widened in pain and it was only when his sword took the initiative to extend and surge towards her did he get enough control to break his leg out of the ground. The sentient sword descended on the samurai and she leaped back several times to avoid it, but it dipped and moved in different directions, growing in size and ravenous appetite for her blood and chakra. Sparks flew as her cursed blade deflected the massive purple sword, jumping away when it moved unexpectedly, meanwhile Kisame was struggling to stand, his groin still hurt. Samehada squealed in accomplishment as he wrapped the ronin in its elastic handle and brought its full weight down forcefully on her head like a hammer. There was tense silence and the purple sword kept on squeaking and making shrill cries of joy, until it abruptly stopped and a large pillar of earth exploded from the ground and pushed it off, untangling its greyish white handle enough for any watcher to see Aoki-chan standing in the last place she had been seen, although there were numerous bleeding cuts across her face and her left, sheathe bearing arm. Her blade had been stabbed into the earth and her sheath was crossed over her head while the pillar of earth had risen up behind her to throw the sword off.

She slid her sword into its unbreakable sheathe, levelled it at her opponent and yelled, _"Wind: Shot!"_ the black sword holder rocketed off the blade at impossible speeds and Kisame had to hastily command his weapon back to him so he could use it to cross his midsection. The weapon smashed against the sentient sword and the sword master had to apply chakra to his feet so that he wouldn't skid away too much.

Obito ducked a swing for his head and nailed Naruto's cheek, drove his knee into the boy's side and head butted him. Infuriatingly enough Naruto still got up and charged, this was when the Uchiha noticed a pattern he would never had noticed if he did not have the sharingan; Naruto was naturally unpredictable, inheriting it from his mother, so he did not have to put any effort in his fighting skills to be unpredictable. This unpredictability was fluid enough to confuse his three tomoe doujutsu, and with this perk he didn't need to put conscious effort into being unpredictable. Now though, as he hopped away three times from a _senbon barrage_ from the boy's launchers he noticed something strange; Naruto was being predictable. He could even go as far as saying that he was able to see three steps ahead of him, when at the beginning of the fight he was only able to see one third of a second ahead of the blonde. It couldn't have been exhaustion, because as far as he knew Naruto had much more chakra than anyone he had ever met and more stamina than any Kage he had faced. The Uchiha couldn't read anything from Naruto's maniacal expression other than his death, so he didn't bother looking to much at it, but he noticed the boys plan too late.

He had been driven to the makeshift gate of the town, under the guise of dodging backwards from Naruto's insistent attacks, and Naruto changed the direction of his attacks to his immediate right and Obito had little option but to follow in his lead since he couldn't let his defence leak for a world renowned trickster to capitalize on. Abruptly he froze in place, in the position of countering a kick, and a trap seal beneath his glowed with blue, ominous light. His eye widened in horror and Naruto held the _half ram_ seal, he opened his mouth wide, unhinging his jaws, and the deadly Kusanagi blade shot out. The Uchiha quickly activated his Mangekyo, knowing he wouldn't be able to physically overpower a trap seal that made use of Naruto's dense chakra, and a spinning vortex sucked him in, but not in time for the blade to slice across his upper right arm, deep enough to graze the bone, before it impaled the ground. Naruto stayed where her was, after fixing his jaw, and made sure that the attacker had truly gone before he walked to his sword, handed down to him by its former user, Orochimara of the Sannin, and he pushed it into the backpack on his back like a regular sword user would sheath his sword, and the blade disappeared like the bag had enough space in it.

Meanwhile, Kisame and Aoki-chan were frantically attacking each other, each spark of contact rained down and every limb that reached to attack the other was countered. The older sword man's clothes had seen better days, with cuts littering its surface and even his whole left sleeve gone. Neither of them wanted to admit defeat, so they kept slashing and slicing until he felt a bloody hand on his shoulder,

"We have what we need, let's go," the voice sounded pained. He was then dragged into the kamui.

The samurai stood rigidly for a few seconds before she straightened up and smoothly sheathed her blade. Naruto walked to her and stopped as he was about to pass her, he frowned at the cuts on his face and she could see his fists tighten. On the surface he looked like he was staring at the sunset, deadpan, but inside he was enraged that her opponent had gotten her in her present state; blood on her face and left arm from numerous cuts, her coat sleeves had jagged slashes perforating it, exposing some of her smooth tan skin. Skin Naruto did not want any other living creature to see, besides him. The primal part of him wanted to track Kisame down and make a coat out of his skin, but the sensible part of him just barely wrangled him back in control after she sent him a knowing look, even lifting a corner of her lips slyly; a silent challenge he would address when everything had been settled for the day and they were in the privacy of their cave. He opened his right fist and a single blue pill was in the middle of his palm, "take this," she immediately swallowed it and sighed as the cuts on her face and arm began knitting back together, though there was still blood, "go and get cleaned up, I'll deal with our other guests," he raised a single finger for her to be quiet, and the quick motion and the fact that he was still technically her boss had her snap her lips shut, "come back when you're done," she bowed quickly and stomped to the mountain, she looked up hesitantly at the height of the mountain before she looked at Naruto pleadingly, he slowly smiled at her, realizing what the problem was, "is there a problem?"

She closed her eyes tightly and her fists tightened, he watched on in amusement as two minutes passed of her tightly closing her lips, "Please!" she shouted and he laughed under his breathe as he summon a spider to take her up to their cave home. She climbed onto it and patted the spider, the creature raced up the steep mountain to their temporary home.

The boy didn't look or feel winded for his long drawn out fight against the Uchiha, so he leisurely walked to the town's entrance with his hands lazily behind his head, and waited for the Konoha ninjas to make an appearance. The ninjas walked out of their hiding place of a large rock a mile away from Yomisaki town. Although Naruto could sense he couldn't discern who was who unless he made use of his second or third pair of eyes, or second nose (the dots on his forehead and nose) and that would be a waste of chakra. Basically, anyone he couldn't sense monumental chakra from he would never take seriously; Obito Uchiha, though had a large well of chakra, didn't have the capacity large enough to interest Naruto. So, he was surprised at who Konoha had sent to capture him, seeing as that was the only reason he thought they were here in the first place. Those he had met were now different; those he had not were piquing his interest enough to look over. Kakashi looked like he had seen better days; his uniform was rugged, though clean enough, he had bandages wrapped tightly around his left arm, from fingers to shoulder, and all round tired. Even though Sasuke was looking at him with a straight face Naruto could see the war of words he wanted to unleash on him. The Uchiha also looked tired but all the more eager to return to wherever he had come from. He had on a jounin flak jacket. Sakura…looked down when his eyes clashed with hers; a tinge of red crept up her neck and covered her cheeks. She was in a chunin flak jacket, prompting Naruto to nod in acknowledgement that she had at least bettered herself. Sai was still Sai with his fake smile in place and masterfully hiding his exhaustion he felt. He wore a jounin flak jacket. He skipped over analysing Jiriaya, not caring what he went through; to the person he assumed was called Yamato. He deduced this because he could sense a perfect mixture of water and earth affinity chakra in him, an awfully large store of it. The man, whose large iris made the spider summoner a little bit uncomfortable, sent the boy an appreciative smile, for what he was yet to find out.

Jiriaya took the initiative to speak first, "your godmother really taught you well kid,"

"She's a perfectionist," Naruto replied simply with a shrug, he crossed his arm and subtly began to prepare his chakra to defend him if the ninjas chose to attack but curious enough he could not even see the minute signs that their muscles were geared to attack; quite frankly their hands were at their sides and their shoulders sagged, _'what is going on…?'_

"You just did what no one else could do and you were still holding back," Kakashi spoke above what Jiriaya had to say, the Sannin was clearly floored by Naruto's response, "you critically injured Madara Uchiha," Naruto didn't make use of his extra eyes and nose to fight, not even using more than three jutsu and they were just the trap seal, the senbon barrage and summoning the Kusanagi from his mouth.

"He didn't want to take me seriously so I didn't take him seriously. He got what happens when I'm toyed with. And I'm sure you people would know that that isn't Uchiha Madara," they nodded and boy shifted on his feet, looking at each person again, "now why are you people here?"  
There was a war of emotions broiling on their faces, "Naruto-kun…" Sakura muttered, still looking at his feet but more out of admission that he was past her skills, "we need your help,"

This time it was the blonde scientist that was floored; of all the times Konoha ninjas had come to retrieve him the reasons had all been the same, for him to face justice or to collect his bounty. Tsunade had changed his A rank entry to an S rank _**'Flee on Sight'**_ so that he would be left alone but people from her village still went behind her back to take him on. He was aware of the war burning a path of destruction through the continent and he assumed that his personal help wouldn't be needed because he had left a few of his warehouses still fully manned and operational just for the countries; his products were revolutionary, able to heal a severe cut to the stomach in mere hours or provide a new limb to an amputee and with said limb being easy to use. He was positive that they wouldn't need his help; he was the outcast, the brat, the _**demon**_. From birth he had been predestined to be the one they hated, the one who was meant to suffer. Why would they need his help?

"Why?" he asked,

Yamato coughed into his fist and said, "We are losing this war, there are too many casualties that even your drugs can not fully heal. The enemy has outnumbered us and our morale is low, a few of the soldiers have even walked to their deaths, unarmed,"

"Why do you need my help?" Naruto repeated with a sharp frown, "What can I do that none of the other shinobi cannot?"

No one wanted to speak but, surprising enough, it was Sasuke that continued, "Everything. You…you can do everything," Naruto cocked his head to the side in confusion and Sasuke kept speaking, "your skills are well rounded and you're a master of many things. Most people cannot be scientists and masters of taijutsu or ninjutsu and fuinjutsu masters at the same time, it is either one but you…" he had to swallow his pride to admit this, "Are a master of all,"

' _Not all, I can't perform genjutsu. But they don't need to know that…'_ the blonde blissfully thought, "So you believe that if I participate in this war I would make a difference?"

"Yes-" Kakashi spoke but Naruto held his hand up for him to stop and pointed at Jiriaya,

"No…I want him to say it,"

The toad sage screwed his lips to the side in distaste and Naruto clenched his teeth, trying to maintain a straight face. The sage abruptly bowed his head and said, "Yes, Naruto, you would make a big difference in the war,"

From the admission Naruto felt another weight on his chest lift off him. His godmother had told him of stories of when Kushina was still pregnant. The busy snake summoner would take at least thirty minutes of her time to visit the Uzumaki and at least get on good terms with her before he was born. Kushina and Orochimara might not have liked each other, even borderline hated each other, but what they had in common was Minato, whom the Sannin was gradually distancing herself from. Throughout her pregnancy, Jiriaya had been out of the village. She took the liberty of sending him messages and telling him her plans to take care of their godchild but the letters he sent back was what made the woman hate the toad sage. She even showed him the letters he sent to her; each one clearly outlining the fact that he didn't care what happened to the child. That he will be nothing if not for his sole guidance. Naruto never had faith on his godfather but it still chipped off a part of his heart to read that the man didn't care what happened to him, as long as he was part of his future.

Needless to say that his whole life had been proof enough that Naruto didn't need Jiraiya's help.

Naruto controlled his smile and said, "then I will gladly help you, but only because of two reasons," he raised a finger, "because my friend and I also live on this planet, if its destroyed then we will have nowhere else to go," he added a second finger, "and because it'll be fun,"

Yamato hastily said, "And no holding back,"

Naruto made a flippant hand gesture at him, "let me worry about that," he then rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "now where do I start?"

Kakashi nudged Sakura forward and she blushed under Naruto's curious gaze, "there are these plant-like men that are giving us trouble. We don't know their weakness," Naruto motioned for her to continue as he began trekking to the mountain, the others followed him, "we know that when they take a blood sample of a living or dead shinobi they are able to take their form and infiltrate our ranks. The only way were are to know that they are posing as a comrade is that they had a zigzag like marking going down from their chests to their pelvis,"

"Even the eyes don't change?" the scientist asked, intrigued by the creatures ability,

"No, they seem to be able to place a chakra-less illusion over them," the star medic of the team continued,

"What are their key components?" Naruto summoned four spiders and they began their ascent upwards, they met up with Aoki-chan and she turned around. The Konoha ninjas each got out slightly older versions of oxygen masks that ANBU use,

"White fibrous skin, a greenish sap in their chest cavity that is imbued with nature chakra and our sensors say that there is another chakra signature on them, that this chakra comes off as watered down and weak from age," the pink haired medic was on the same spider as Naruto but she still had to yell over the high speed winds blowing around that,

Naruto hummed and nodded, "I'm under the assumption that you have a sample readily available on you,"

"Yes, we recovered a whole plant body from a battle in Waterfall,"

"You did? How have you been able to kill it so far?"

"Knife to the heart but that alone is incredibly difficult because they can heal themselves and stand up again. We need to make the wound deep and large so that most of the sap would leak out," Sai yelled to Naruto, he had been feeling left out of the conversation. Naruto looked at Sakura and she nodded to confirm what she said, he looked back up the mountain as his spider scampered to the cave,

"I think I know how to kill these things from a distance but I need to get that sample to my lab and analyse it to confirm," his ronin friend waved for his attention and he mentally commanded the spider she was on to approach his speeding stead, both racing side by side,

" _Someone broke into the lab, sir,_ " she discreetly signed to him and his eyebrows shot up in surprise and she nodded before hesitating for a few seconds, " _they…they took your godmother's DNA,_ "

' _They did what?!'_ he didn't even wait for the spiders to slow down in front of the cave before he jumped off, slapped his palm on the door and pushed it open.

The lab looked unchanged but he knew better. He ran to his desk and saw that documents he stored on it had been pushed off to the ground, scattered everywhere. His shaking hands ran over the surface of the table and ever so slowly a fractured storage seal that spanned over the whole table opened up. Fractured because it had been forced open by a counter seal greater than level six. Nothing was unsealed since it was empty. Among the many things Orochimara wanted him to do on the event of her death was to find a cure for her unique heart cancer, he was just about to get to it until the Konoha ninjas came. It was the only physical sample on the planet because the body he had buried had been burnt to ash, again at her request.

He fell on one knee and closed his eyes forcefully; trying to force the tears that wanted to come out to stop. The Konoha ninjas looked at him, not knowing what happened, and Aoki-chan hastily walked to him and blocked him from view with her new attire; a long white coat that reached her mid-calf. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and his head snapped to her, fire spinning in his vulpine eyes that were hidden under his black goggles. She handed him a small handheld device with a glass screen and her thumb tapped the centre so the surveillance video would begin playing.

A spinning vortex similar to the one he saw the Uchiha used to escape appear inside the cave, just behind the door. The man stumbled and fell on his knees, visibly in pain from the slice wound through his right arm that cut clean through it enough to chip into his bone. He stayed on his knees, panting for air and clasping the profusely bleeding wound with his other hand. The man cursed under his breathe and looked up from his kneeling position at the pristine lab besides the spurts of blood that pumped out of his arm and pooled at his feet, the toxins laced in the blade were destroying him. He grumbled, his voice sounding gurgled, and his sharingan eye looked around for a source of chakra that wasn't nature, Naruto's, Aoki-chan's or Kyuubi's. There were storage seals all around the lab and only two in each room, as far as his eyes could see from his hunched position, but the one that stood out was the one located on the desk. He struggled to his feet, grunting with each steady step, and stopped by the desk. He suppressed the pain the toxins were putting him through to draw a counter seal for the storage seal with his blood. There was an audible crack and the glass cylinder that stored flacks of the dead Sannin's skin. He swiped the sample and stuffed it into his cloak before he kamui teleported out of the lab.

Naruto pushed the video device away and took his female friends had to stand up. He looked over his shoulder at his Konoha shinobi guests with a sinister smirk, "it seems I do have a reason to go all out,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Are you aware that he will kill you for doing this?" Orochimara the snake Sannin said with an amused smirk to the one armed Obito Uchiha and her former apprentice, Yakushi Kabuto. She looked disapprovingly at the latter, "I'm very disappointed in you, Kabuto-kun,"

The Sannin honestly felt great; she was not in any pain. The pale woman looked around at the location she had been revived and saw that it was a cave with the walls smoothened out so that they all curved at touched at the top. Around her were hundreds of closed caskets but from the ones that were opened she was able to recognise three legendary figures; Hashirama Senju, Mu of the Dust release and Uchiha Madara. The real Uchiha Madara. He had his arms closed and his awe inspiring three tomoe sharingan looked down on her. She wasn't able to move, a sign that her apprentice had perfect the _impure world resurrection_ jutsu and was simply keeping them rigid with his mind. With a heavy mind she realized that the war her former organisation, the Akatsuki, wanted to start had already started the war. Though one thing made her yellow eyes brighten,

"None of you stand a chance against my Naruto-chan," she growled under her breathe and flashed a bright grin at the one armed Uchiha, "I take it he did that to you," she tutted lowly, to shame him, "can you even imagine what else he can do if he puts in a little effort," she didn't know he had re-created an entire town in six hours but that was a point proven, "you all are dead men walking; when he finds out I was brought back-"

"Shut up," Madara intoned, his voice bounced around the large subterranean room. The snake woman opened her mouth to curse at the Uchiha but Kabuto mentally forced her mouth shut, she turned to him and spat venom through her eyes. The snake boy recoiled a little, "get on with the plan, Obito," even though he couldn't move his presence was still felt and it only seemed Hashirama wasn't affected; the wood release user looked at the man from the corner of his eyes seeing as he couldn't turn his head to look at him,

"What plan?"

The reptilian teen looked away from her to his 'partner' Obito, "yes, what plan?"

"Tell her to summon the Uzumaki king of the underworld mask,"

"Why-"

The one armed Uchiha glared at the medic and he clearly got the message. He nodded to his former sensei turned undead puppet and she rigidly weaved through a hundred hand seals, struggling with all her might to slow her hands down but Kabuto had full control of her, merely with an idle thought, and she finished the set of seals by clapping her hands together and interlacing them, _"Summoning jutsu: Uzumaki King of the Underworld mask,"_ a thick crack broke a foot in front of her and it widened. Out of the crack rose multiple skeleton hands, each one supporting a corner of an average sized mask that bore the seal of the underworld king on its forehead. It was designed in a way that it had ringed eyes of a racoon and fangs of a vampire, pale white as the moon. The Sannin ripped the mask from the skeletons hands and they returned to the underworld, she shakily handed it to her former apprentice.

There was a reason the Uzumaki were so feared, not only because of their chakra, or their battle lust, or their kenjutsu skills. They were feared because of their fuinjutsu skills; they were among the oldest clan in history and it shouldn't come as a surprise that they were able to use seals to tap into the realm of the undead. The Uzumaki king of the underworld mask was created to temporarily revive dead comrades to return to battle but the power of the mask soon took over its user and corrupted him. He had to be put down before he could do something evil and the mask had been stored, not in Uzushio, but deep under the marshes of Swamp country. Orochimara had stolen the mask in the hopes of using it to bring back her baby brother, Minato, so that she could at least apologize to him, but the day she found it was also the day she had gotten news of Naruto's existence; she dropped everything she was doing: her life and her duties, to take care of her godchild for as long as she could, forgetting about the mask.

Until today.

The sacrifice needed to flawlessly use the mask was of a person who had frequently escaped death, or a person the king of hell would gratefully snag.

Obito took the mask from Kabuto and that was when Pein, specifically the Asura path, made his appearance, dragging the limp body of Shimura Danzo. The man had made the mistake of sending his ROOT ninjas to him in order to make a deal; Danzo's sharingan for safety during the war. The old war hawk actually believed that Obito had one eye because he couldn't get a replacement. The Uchiha clearly didn't want to make any deals and effortlessly destroyed ROOT, sparing Danzo so that he would serve a purpose, which was to be the sacrifice to bring Madara back to life. The one armed Uchiha, who was one armed because he had cut off his poisoned arm before the poison spread to his heart, put on the mask. Pein held Danzo up so that he could face Madara and the ancient Uchiha wore an evil smirk of victory as his disciple pointed his index and middle finger at Danzo, the colour on his skin began to drain, and swiped it to his master. There was a visible vortex of translucent white that passed from Danzo into him, for about five minutes before it stopped, with Danzo being nothing but a pile of bones. The mask crumbled from Obito's face and every living member in the room took a cautious step back as Uchiha Madara walked forward.

The revived man slowly looked at his one armed disciple, then to the frantic reptilian teen that formerly had control of him, then to the path that represented Nagato. He smirked at the latter. His power rolled off him in dangerous waves, enough to make the erect coffins around them to creak away from him. His bone chilling eyes not hiding his intention for the world as the still tomoe analysed each resurrected coffin, not even needing to open them.

He began walking through the sea of standing caskets to the exit, situated under the Valley of End, and said, "we attack Konoha first, after which we begin phase two of my plan. No one would stand in my way,"

Orochimara closed her eyes, _'good luck, Naruto,'_

 **Authors note**

 **Wow, so, I intended for this chapter to be shorter but there just some things that I wanted to be mentioned here and not left to the next chapter. So, so many things; like Obito's preliminary fight against Naruto, how they even got to Yomisaki, to reviving Madara, lots and lots of things. Total word count is 17,300** _ **approximately**_ **. I purposely didn't make Minato, Kushina or the Sandaime be with Obito and the rest under the VOE because it would be an even longer dialogue, starting with Minato wondering how Naruto was doing and Kushina yelling at Orochimara for dirtying her child, yadda yadda yadda. I might like writing stories but there is an extent my fingers can take.**

 **There are a lot of layers to this; Obito finally caught wind of where Naruto was and went to guage his strength with Kisame capturing Naruto but not counting the fact that Naruto still kept Aoki-chan alive. His secondary mission was to take the only available sample of his godmothers DNA so that he could revive her and take the mask to revive Madara. He got poisoned for not taking Naruto seriously and he had to lose his arm. I don't need to explain how Danzo is the person that death would love to embrace; his scars are reason enough.**

 **Yes, Naruto can spit out the Kusanagi. Did it surprise you? I hope it did.**

 **I'm aware that I uprooted ROOT unexpectedly but if I kept them around they would just hinder the plot. The story is a bit accelerated, seeing as the war takes place when Naruto is fourteen while the canon war took place when they were like sixteen-seventeen.**

 **I'm not sure anyone noticed but I rushed through a part of this chapter; re-building Yomisaki market town. My reason is because that information was just a filler and will not affect the story whatsoever.**

 **What do you think of Naruto's confession? Where do you think it would lead for Aoki-chan and him? Kindly drop a review on what you think.**

 **Next chapter is going to be** _ **wild**_ **. Fights and fights all round. I will have to dig into my creativity vault for them. Opinions and thoughts on what should be included would also be appreciated.**

 **Review, if you so kindly, even though I know you're tired from reading this long ass chapter. I would be very appreciative.**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello there.**

 **New chapter ready for your eyes to consume and your minds to digest…or something like that. The story is about rounding up and guess what…**

 **I FORGOT THE CROSSOVER I WANTED TO USE…or something like that. You see, I've been getting more universes and more ideas than I can do with and the original universe I wanted to use got buried under them. I can remember the universe, just not** _ **how**_ **to** _ **continue**_ **the story from there, or** _ **what**_ **Naruto would be doing there. The first solution would be to make a story for each universe but if I'm going to be honest I'm surprised I'm still writing** _ **this**_ **story, I'm not sure how long I can continue writing alternate versions of** _ **Ink Heart**_ **. The second solution is to leave it to you guys, my readers, to help me decide.**

 **I set up a poll (check my profile) and I listed out ten potential crossovers, with you guys having the freedom to vote for five at a time, nothing more. They are: Soul Eater, Claymore, Justice League, Avengers: Infinity war (its funny cuz I already have a crossover about that), X-men Apocalypse, Overlord, Hellsing Ultimate, Kill la kill and Akame ga kill. See anyone you want me to write on then chose, don't be shy.**

 **I even have a name and first few paragraphs for the sequel; it's called Bad Heart. You will see exactly why its called that later.**

 **That's about it. I hope you enjoy reading.**

CHAPTER 8

 **09:00am**

 **Allied Shinobi forces Headquarters**

 **Hidden Waterfall Village**

Naruto kicked open the door and was immediately surrounded by at least thirty ninjas. All of them were wielding an array of weapons, or at least had their fists up, and were in rigid fighting stances. Behind the spider summoner his samurai friend sighed tiredly, Naruto bravely walked forward, pulling Aoki-chan with him by her left hand, and glared up when a shinobi at least two feet taller than him blocked his path to his target.

"Lord Shibuki, can you call off your dogs," Naruto shouted around the person blocking him. "Or I'll have to go _through_ them just to talk to you." He felt his hand being tugged and he spared a quick eye over his shoulder, looking at his guard's solid gaze, then back again. He grumbled. "I mean, I would like to discuss something with you." His eyebrows twitched with irritation as he added. " _ **Please**_."

"I don't know how you got past our defences, I don't know how you got past my shinobi and I don't know how you broke through our ranks to get to this building." Shibuki, leader of Waterfall village, began as he waved for his shinobi, as well as the other allied ninjas, to stand down. He walked around the command table, with Mei and Tsunade following suit, to stand in front of the teenager. Aoki-chan bowed deeply to the village leaders and they acknowledged it with curt nods, though Naruto didn't follow her example. "But right now I don't care."

"I heard you were looking for me." Naruto said while looking straight at Tsunade and fixing his goggles better with a sharp smirk. "Well here I am."

The blonde Senju frowned darkly at Naruto. "I'm tempted to have you arrested here and now-"

Naruto scoffed and had to be pulled back by his ronin best friend so that he wouldn't physically butt heads with the Hokage. "We both know I won't go down without a fight." It was hard to explain but there were a few people that by just looking at Naruto would get infuriate him; Jiraiya, Kakashi and Tsunade were those few people.

Tsunade crossed her arms strongly and lifted her chin up. "That won't need to happen; we need your help." She looked around him, seeing as she wasn't tall enough to look over his shoulder, even though she was a relatively tall Kunoichi, and spied the group of Konoha ninjas outside of the circle of ninjas surrounding them. Her eyes returned to the younger ninja. "I take it team 7 informed you of your purpose."

"They have."

"Then you can begin as soon as possible." She said and made to turn around, but stopped when Naruto laughed under his breathe. The blonde boy lightly jabbed his elbow to the girl holding his hand and nodded to Tsunade.

"She thinks she can command me, that's hilarious!" he hollered and was about to rush forward to the woman again, if not for his hand being hurriedly pulled back. Naruto snarled evilly at Tsunade, who took a step back at the abruptness of his faltered attack; one moment he was a blur the next he was back normal in the same spot. The spider summoner bared his teeth and lowly toned. "You don't _own_ me, Lady Tsunade." The Senju covered the gulp that built up in her throat and tried to keep her eyes levelled with the cold blackness of the goggles from the S ranked Uzumaki. "Because I agreed to help in this war does not mean you can issue commands to me like I'm one of your shinobi. I work on my own terms and at my own time, and if I see it fit I would kill one Akatsuki member a month. Do you understand what I'm saying?" He was yanked back again and his expression twisted with irritation when the woman remained unmoving. He cracked his neck and the sound of it echoed through the deathly silent building.

Tsunade nodded slightly and Naruto's face bloomed into a smile.

"That's the spirit. Now, before I can render my services I have a few conditions I want this esteemed gathering of leaders to agree on." He slapped his forehead when he remembered something; he turned to Mei and waved. "How's the war treating you, Lady Mei?"

The Mizukage shrugged tiredly. "Not too good, Lord Naruto."

The Uzumaki hummed and scratched his chin. "I see, I see…" his hidden red eyes roved back to the Hokage and he continued. "Do you want to hear my conditions or are you desperate enough to agree right away?"

"Let's hear them." she grated.

"First I want full immunity for _our_ crimes and I want _our_ names to be wiped off the missing ninja/ronin list of our respective villages." He said this as he motioned to Aoki-chan. Mei and Shibuki were all for it but Tsunade was hesitant; what Naruto did during his time as a Konoha ninja and even after that were abominable, disgusting acts of inhuman depravity. He was wanted in more than a dozen countries and his name was hot on the lips of everyone, not only because of his KDC Empire but for his infamy as well. Naruto added. "Our names can still be in bingo books but not as rogue fighters."

"We need to deliberate on this with the others; we can't just jump into these kinds of decisions without everyone being present." The Hokage said with a hint of pleading in her voice. Naruto's eyebrows went down, showing that he was squinting at her, and she hurriedly said. "What are your other conditions?" she hoped upon hoped that he wouldn't ask for money. Naruto was rich; money didn't really motivate him anymore, so she could rest easy that he wouldn't ask her for money.

"That the Kitsugami Drug Company be recognised as a legal organisation and that interference from countries we're based in," he again motioned between his friend and him. "Should be stopped completely. We will provide drugs and all but no attacking my workers."

"We will also table that in our discussion." The Kazekage, Tsuchikage and Raikage were fighting at the warfronts close to their villages and were to return back to the HQ in a few hours. The Hokage and the Mizukage weren't in their respective villages because there wasn't an immediate need for them. Naruto conceded and said.

"Lastly I want Konoha, and all of Fire country, to leave me alone. I can travel in Fire country and I can even visit Konoha when I want but I don't want Leaf ninjas randomly jumping me. Aoki-chan's getting bored killing them." This time the usually gentle ronin beamed with him.

"That last one I can personally handle." Tsunade ensured and Naruto nodded for her to continue when he noticed that she still had something to say. "But…"

"Yes…?" he shared a short look with his friend.

"I think it would be best if you do something before we can consider your conditions. A certainty that you will pull through on your side."

"I see where you're going; you want me to prove myself."

"Exactly." The woman nodded and Shibuki spoke.

"There are thirteen main players in the opposing forces; Sasori, Diedara, Kisame, Kabuto Yakushi, Uchiha Madara, a paper jutsu user, the six rinnegan holders and the plant man. I propose that to prove yourself you kill any five of them first."

' _This is the Sandaime's challenge all over again.'_ Naruto thought with a roll of his eyes. He was again being placed in an impossible situation with a monumental amount of load placed on his shoulders, on a mission with no room for mistakes. It was all miraculously coming full circle again but unlike back then, when he was just getting the hang of doing the impossible, he was older.

He could handle it.

"Anyone in particular?"

"If I may," Mei said, injecting herself into the conversation. "I suggest Lord Naruto kill Sasori, Deidera, Kisame, Kabuto and Madara. If those five fall then the rest would be easy to pick off."

' _You forgot about the plant man. He seems to be a 'key player' and he needs to be handled quickly.'_ The blonde muttered to himself but nodded. "Fine, but as long as Aoki-chan here gets to deal with Kisame, for some reason she wants him dead." He shrugged laxly, like it was normal for his well-mannered samurai friend to want another person's head rolling so insistently. The leaders nodded immediately and Naruto slowly stuck his hands into his front right pants pocket, not to make the ninjas jump, and pulled out a small clear phial with light green contents. "Dip your weapons in this, preferably your long range weapons, and use them on to attack the plant clones. One touch and they would crumble like rubble." The boy smiled widely at his rhyme, which wasn't really a rhyme.

Chakra was and would always be the weakness for any organic living creature, human, animal or otherwise. When an attack was made directly to the chakra, and it succeeded, then there was little to no hope for the victim. The attacks could range from severe infections to simply forcefully injecting foreign chakra into the targets system, a simplified version of genjutsu. When capitalized well then the person would stand no chance, which was exactly what Naruto brought forward in the small vial he had cooked up in his lab. He had quickly studied the greenish sap in the plant imposters and noted that it was purely liquid nature chakra, something only seen from trees and shrubs but engineered in such a way that instead of simply solidifying when it left the chest cavity it stayed liquid. So Naruto created a sort of solidifying agent that made use of nature chakra from his snakes, the foreign chakra would negatively react with the plant man and they would turn to stone, as was the norm when nature chakra was tampered with by an organic being.

The thin liquid had no effect on humans, merely giving the person a small rash on where the liquid came in contact with that would reduce in half an hour, and this was what Naruto detailed to the ninjas.

"Even a drop of this would take down even the biggest plant clone." He tossed the small container to Tsunade, in case she wanted examined before she used it. "There's more with your apprentice." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder to the pink haired medic before he waved. "I'll be going now." He turned and said over his shoulder. "And I almost forgot; if my conditions aren't met after this war is over then I would kill _**all**_ of you leaders, starting with you, Lady Tsunade. Have a nice day!" He allowed the gravity of his words reach them as he left Hidden Waterfall.

Outside the village we find Naruto checking his attire while his nervous bodyguard looked on. The Uzumaki was in a grey and red hoodie, which he pulled up over his head to cast a shadow over his upper face, there was a short sleeved red shirt underneath it. He was also in black pant, with bandages tied around his feet and his toes, which were in a pair of grey shinobi sandals. The boy sat down on a rock and clipped on his silver senbon launchers, he wavered in place, trying to decide whether or not to wear the curved black stealth guards, he decided not to, seeing as even if he did they wouldn't hide him in broad daylight. He adjusted his feet bandages and idly said.

"Is there something wrong?"

Aoki-chan stopped pacing around the small clearing and stood in front of Naruto. "I insist I come along with you."

"You've got Kisame to kill, remember?"

"We can kill him last."

"If we spread out then we can cover more ground."

"You're going after five S ranked ninjas!" she yelled, scaring away a flock of birds that nested in a cluster of trees close by.

He raised an eyebrow and sat up, perching his hands to his side on the rock. He stared at her for a few long minutes, with her ragged panting and her clenching and unclenching fingers. He instinctively looked over her to see whether she was in her full gear; a white and red mid-riff shirt, exposing a smooth tanned stomach covered my black mesh armour. She was in deep red shorts that stopped at her mid-thigh, with a black sash around her waist, which was where her sword was safely perched in, and black knee socks travelling down into black sandals. Over her torso was a light black coat with a stitched spider clan badge on the left breast that she left open, and crossed over her body was her bow, with her arrows stored in a quiver on her back. His eyes slowly crept up from her body to her coal black eyes and he cocked his head to the side curiously. "You don't have anything to worry about-"

"Not this time Naruto." She halted what he was going to say. "This time your diving head first against five S ranks. I have the right to worry."

Naruto's lips twitched upwards into a small smile and he smoothly got to his feet, easily taller than her. He pulled down his hoodie and lifted up his goggles to look into her eyes with his own. The blonde slowly placed his right hand on her shoulder and his other hand on her head, smoothing down her neat black hair and tucking a strand behind her ear.

The ronin was trying not to cry. She firmly pursed her lips and tightly closed her eyes, her hands were shaking at her sides and Naruto slowly smiled. Silently, he ghosted his fingers over her reddening cheeks and she looked up at him, he tried not to frown at the tears she kept at bay.

"I'll be fine."

She looked into his terror inspiring eyes unflinchingly before her own dropped. Her hands gently went up to his and she clasped them strongly, holding them between their bodies, making her realize that they were standing embarrassingly close. She gulped lightly and whispered. "What if you won't…?"

He reached back to his head, her hands followed since they were in his grasp, and he removed his goggles. He fixed them over her forehead and smirked sharply at her astonished expression as he neatly smoothed down her black hair. "How about that?"

Naruto's goggles were the first ever things he got from his godmother, Orochimara of the Sannin. They were his most precious treasures and he would preferably travel to hell, dine with the devil, stay for a few years and return back to earth than lose them, and the implication of what this was not lost to the black haired girl.

Naruto had basically given her his heart and his soul.

Aoki-chan felt heat rise up from her belly and take over her face. She bit her black painted bottom lip nervously and shyly looked down, allowing her hair to shadow her burning face.

Naruto laughed and playfully bopped her nose. She puffed out her cheeks stubbornly and he gave her hair a last ruffle before he disentangled his fingers from hers. "Don't forget we have that birthday date in a few weeks."

She perked up and Naruto beamed when her face glowed, the tears already gone. "Yeah, you promised."

The blonde nodded and walked past her, flipping on his hoodie, throwing a shadow over his face once again, though this time his horrifying vulpine red shone from the darkness. He made sure his launchers were under his hoodies sleeves, with the four main nozzles barely poking out from underneath. "I certainly did." And he leaped away towards where he had heard Sasori and Deidera were last seen.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Two hours later**

 **The deserts close to Sunagakure**

 **Wind country**

"This is boring!" Deidera yelled to the sky. Sasori didn't even spare the blonde bomber a glance.

The duo was flying on a clay bird towards Suna to, once again, rain destruction and disorder in Hidden Sand. It was becoming much too repetitive for them, nothing Sasori couldn't handle, but Deidera's whining was slowly getting on his nerves. The wooden man, sitting securely in his solid Hiruko puppet, mentally grated as the bomber hissed and spat like a child.

Admittedly Deidera was right; this 'war' was boring. There was no challenge for the remaining Akatsuki and it was pretty much smooth sailing to oblivion.

But always winning got tiresome really quickly.

The puppet master was immortal, he had all the time in the world to develop himself but that didn't stop him from starting as soon as he got his body; his collection of puppets and human puppets had drastically increased, and there was also the added perk of taking an already dead shinobi and controlling their limbs to his every whim. Unlike his partner, who was only interested in blowing things up because, apparently, art was an explosion.

The red head sneered.

' _Explosion my a-'_ he stopped and raised his hand for silence; thankfully Deidera obeyed and shut his mouth. He turned his head around, reminiscent to an owl looking all the way behind him, and his brown eyes remained expressionless as an oncoming plume of dust and sand rushed towards them. Nothing could be seen from the puppet masters face but he was becoming excited about the prospect of a, hopefully, good fight. The bomber though hooted and commanded his clay bird to circle around the billowing sand when it stopped fully as it got to them.

There was a smaller burst of air and the wind was swept away, this time the wooden man's eyes lit up a fraction when he recognized who it was.

The killer of Kakuzu, Uzumaki Naruto.

The boy had a red bandanna covering his mouth and nose, tucked neatly so that his hoodie covered the knot tied behind his neck, and if they didn't see the bright red eyes of evil spark from the dark recesses of the hoodie they wouldn't have known it was him. Another obvious sign that it was Naruto was his signature black backpack and the small glinting nozzles slightly popping out from his sleeves, they were his senbon launchers. The boy silently followed them with his red eyes as they circled around him on the bird.

Deidera squealed childishly and yelled. "I can't help myself! _C3_ " he fed clumps of clay to his palms and dropped the regurgitated mass down to Naruto. "Die Namikaze scum! _Katsu!_ " he screamed maniacally and Sasori almost cursed him for wasting the kill so quickly, but when, two seconds later, there was no subsequent explosion, he looked down.

The bomb was gone.

Naruto was still looking up at them, analysing them silently, and when they looked deeper into his eyes they found amusement.

This was uncharacteristic behaviour for the spider summoner; reports of those that had encountered him always spoke of how much he laughed and toyed with them, always grinning and nearly always tittering evilly. Now though, he was just standing there, doing nothing but looking at them…

"S rank my ass." Naruto mumbled when they duo distractedly followed his diversion, still circling him cautiously on their clay bird. The boy slowly brought up both of his hands, palm up and to his sides, and snapped his fingers.

That was when purple tipped senbon of death rained down from heaven in a glorious shower of light, covering over a five mile radius of the desert from the point Naruto stood; too far away for a _body flicker technique_ to successfully escape and too far for the clay bird to quickly fly from. The two S ranks looked up in sync at the sudden large, thick cloud of medical needles Naruto had been creating since his unexpected appearance. The teen had summoned ten shadow clones and had them spread out in a large circle, exactly five miles with him at the centre, and they were given the duty of creating the storm of poison tipped senbon.

" _Senbon thunder storm."_ Naruto intoned with a large smile on his face, hidden beneath his mouth bandanna. He didn't even wince as a few of the needles impaled his body; at that point he was immune to his own poison. The flying bird and the two ninjas standing on it were mercilessly punctured by the pouring oozing senbon needles. The bird crashed into the sand with a ground shaking thump and there was a small, suppressed explosion which sounded more like a low pop than an earth shattering bang. Naruto guessed that it was because the tissue destroying poison laced on the tips of his patented needles had charred through the clay bird so much that it was nothing more than a burnt, slightly curved surface. He allowed the needles to continue falling from heaven from thick purple clouds gathered overhead until he ordered for it to stop five minutes after it had started. The thin goo on the needles scattered around melted and slithered the ground harmlessly, though the ones eating Deidera and Sasori entered their chakra networks and wrecked terrible havoc.

He dusted his shoulders of the few needles that melted on his body and they dissolved into an odourless, colourless liquid. Naruto then started trekking leisurely towards the smoky remains of the two S ranks, his hands in his pockets and his lips pursed at the foul odour that wafted off the debris, a negative effect of using his tissue eroding poison.

He briefly looked over Sasori and cocked his head to the side slightly before he looked at the mad bombers lifeless carcass. He bent down on one knee and placed his pointer and middle fingers on the quickly rotting flesh of the ninja, all the while holding his breathe so he wouldn't have to inhale the foul odour. A small, slow smirk grew on his face when he realized something, after feeling a small pulse on the ninja when there was meant to be no pulse, hell even Sasori wasn't saved and he wasn't even human anymore.

Deidera's eyes flashed open and he madly grinned at Naruto. Meeting Naruto's scary red vulpine eyes, the younger blonde opened his mouth and muttered with amusement dancing in his eyes and vague respect flowing through the orbs as well.

"Ah…"

Deidera cackled wildly and screamed. _"Katsu!"_

And the suicide bomb clone exploded with the magnitude strong enough to destroy and entire major hidden village.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Sunagakure no Sato**

"Everybody take cover! _Earth release: Mud wall!_ " the bandage swaddled former sensei to the Sand siblings yelled and erected a wall of mud in sync with other Suna jounin to cover a large section of the village. There were massive clumps of earth falling from the sky and the sky itself even seemed to have acknowledged the magnitude of the explosion; the blue sky had been taken over by light red clouds and the slight wind that blew stopped abruptly. The ninjas grunted in effort as the earth smashed against their shields, the gathered civilians that weren't quick enough to enter the villages bunkers shivered and hugged each other in fear, watching in horror through the cracks as the sky burst into blinding light and even the earth itself seemed to groan under the strain of the blast. The shockwave hit them and nearly half of the shinobi holding the walls were thrown to the ground, destroying their concentration and shattering the defences. Baki roared in effort and forced three seal-less sand clones to burst from the ground and kick aside the rocks that threatened to flatten the helpless civilians and the shocked shinobi.

The weight of the rocks falling down from the sky was getting too much, even for the veteran ninjas. They all breathed a sigh of relief when six giant arms of sand, erupting straight from the ground around Suna, swept aside the rocks covering their walls, then raised their palms to the sky, palms facing the red clouds weeping rocks and debris, and deftly held strong against the other rocks.

They could just barely spy their Kazekage standing on a flying mass of sand, his hand in the air controlling the colossal arms of sand. His eyes were zeroed in on the source of the blast.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Maniacal laughing echoed through the vaguely dusty area where the almighty bomb had imploded. The mad bomber slowly rose from the ground, his combat garb in ruins so he tore it off and threw it away, leaving him in a black fish neck vest and brown pants with black sandals. His deranged eyes searched around for the blonde and quickly shot to his right before he looked away as his puppet partner reassembled his body parts from the sand, his heart seal the main point they were meeting, until his whole body had been formed again; half of his red hair had been seared off by the blast and his left arm was broken beyond compare, so he threw it off and small blue tendrils slithered out of his burnt sleeve and lifted the left arm of his destroyed Hiruko puppet from the sand, connected it back and he experimentally flexed his fingers.

His brown eyes carefully searched for the young blonde ninja.

"Where are you shit faced motherfucker!" Deidera yelled unrestrained and began forcing clay into his hand mouths in preparation. Both S ranks whirled towards a small spike in chakra more than twenty feet away from them and watched as Naruto's body began reforming, slowly and carefully, by multi-coloured spiders as large as an average man's hands. Half of his body didn't seem to have any form, just a writhing pile of wiggling spiders clambering over each other to form their master, and the other part was steadily getting to his feet. Part of Naruto's face had not yet been recreated but it did not reduce the intimidation factor that he was even capable of surviving a blast of that strength.

"I'm impressed." The blonde said. His hoodie was still fully intact and his bandanna was still correctly placed on his mouth, but despite all of this they could notice that the boy had to place a bit of effort in escaping the evaporating blast. They could also sense the wide grin on Naruto's face as the spiders ran up and down his body, forming his right torso and his right shoulder, the boy raised his unformed left hand, a mere pile of moving creatures, and wiggled his fingers. The spiders ran to the tips of his hands and melded together to make his body, ever so carefully his whole arm was made and his shoulder was reconstructed. "I would have been greatly disappointed if my needle storm killed you, but thankfully I still get a chance to have fun." The eight legged summons at his legs quivered and locked their limbs and teeth together, constructing his upper thigh and his hips, leaving his right leg as a pool of spiders. The teen looked down at the unformed mass with a raised eyebrow and the spiders in turn hurriedly skittered around, finally making his legs. The two ninjas watched the display partly in awe, partly in horror; no doubt he had been taught that particular trick by Orochimara, seeing as the Sannin used the _Body dispersion jutsu_ with her snakes when situations go sticky.

Naruto idly dusted his right shoulder, shaking off the dust that had been there.

There was always an advantage of having these kind of small spiders in his arsenal; when he had felt for a pulse on Deidera's neck and found out that it was a ticking bomb instead of a heart he immediately destabilized his body. A split second before the explosion vaporized him, or at least maimed him beyond recognition; he had the spiders switch with the scattered needles all around, as far as possible, before they dig into the ground and took cover deep in the sand. He made use of an evolved version of the desert duster, the fastest species in the desert, and even at the moment he could feel a few summons in Suna, dispersing.

Yes, he had mastered the body reformation technique and he could do it much faster than he had done, but there was always the intimidation factor he liked to use on his targets. He liked putting on a show of power without actually attacking them so that they see how useless an attack on him could be. If he succeeded then he had already won the fight.

He met Deidera's mad gaze unflinchingly and said. "Now, I'm not interested on how you dodged my storm, I just want to know what your bloodlines would do when White sage snake eats your dead bodies."

"Confident words for a child that barely dodged death."

Naruto shrugged. "I just wanted to see if you were worth any effort." And sent them a condescending look, something that boiled Sasori up inside. "You're not, you're even worse than that sharingan user. I didn't even think that was possible."

The mad bomber shook in rage and thrust his palms to Naruto. "I'll make you eat those words, Namikaze!" bird-shaped clay fluttered quickly out of his hand mouths to Naruto and the boy thrust his right hand over his shoulder into his backpack and drew the dreaded long sword, the Grass Cutter blade.

He twirled the poisoned blade in his grip and swung it around his body, resembling more like an art from than an offense-defence. He sliced through the birds like butter, slapped a few away with the flat side of his sword and used the sole of his feet to push a few others aside. The blurry white flying birds swooped around Naruto in their dozens, surrounding him and diving down to him, only to get sliced to bits or kicked into oblivion.

"Why aren't they blowing up?" Sasori muttered to his partner and Deidera frowned sharply.

"I don't know…"

The blonde tirelessly sliced and cut apart the birds that came to him, the victims of his attacks dropped to the ground in pieces and melted into a pile of bubbling white ooze. Deidera stopped sending birds to their inevitable death to conserve his clay and Naruto spun his sword in his hands again and flicked it down, sending the last bird spiralling to the sand.

"Do you honestly think I won't add a few poisons to my godmothers sword?" he muttered, more to himself, and allowed a drop of thin purple poison to roll down the sharp sides of his weapon and drop onto the ground, it fizzled and bubbled on contact, scorching the sand. Poison and toxins were his specialty and quite frankly he was offended they thought he didn't have a way to destabilize the structural integrity of clay, bomb or not, with a fast acting solution.

"Useless. I would have to do this by myself." Sasori hissed stonily and rolled open a scroll he unsealed from his torso, using a gaping hole in his chest to get there. _"Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets."_

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Sunagakure no Sato**

"Shouldn't we go and help him?" Kankuro wondered aloud to his siblings. They were floating with Gaara on his levitating clump of sand and watching Naruto's fight with the two other S ranks. So far it seemed more one sided and laid back, on Naruto's part, with the blonde having more ways to negate their attacks than the duo. The performance of a hundred puppets was deadly manoeuvre that the puppet master used and Kankuro didn't wish for death at their cold, wooden hands.

"I do not know Lord Naruto well, but I know better than to assist him in a fight." Gaara said under his breathe, he crossed his arms and raised his shaved off eyebrows when Naruto's shoulders shook slightly, showing that he was chuckling lowly. He settled into a slack kenjutsu fighting stance in preparation for the fight.

"Why is that?" Temari asked, at awe that Naruto was not in the least afraid.

"His associate, Aoki-chan, has advised the leaders of the alliance not to step in to help him; we would only get in the way."

"That's unbelievable. No one can face two S ranks alone." Temari said and was about to leap onto her fan to fly to Gaara but a firm hand on her forearm stopped her.

"Just watch." Gaara commanded and pointed at the battle.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

One of the last things Orochimara taught her godson was to passively utilize the animal nature chakra stored in him to enhance his body and his natural senses. Even though the woman had been formed from a snake she was still sixty percent human, so she knew exactly what Naruto passed through every time he intended to enhance his senses with his extra eyes and extra nose; a migraine if he kept up the effort for longer than ten minutes and a mental blow to knock him unconscious if it went on for thirty minutes, all because of overload of his senses. The Sannin had carefully instructed Naruto on how to separate each eye and each nostril and how to flow through movements like he was truly an incarnate of his primary summons, with the speed and dexterity of his summons.

Coupled with the fact that Naruto was partly insane and he was very much impossible to tag him without the help of an advanced doujutsu or the intimate secrets of his fighting style, and so far only his ronin best friend knew that and even _she_ found it hard to keep up with him.

The spider summoner flowed and moved his body, his long sword whooshing with each swing and casting bright, smoothly following after images as it cut through the air. He lifted his left leg up and smashed his heel against the broad sword of a puppet, pushing it away so that he could swing his own weapon and slice through two other puppets, the corroding poisons laced on the blade making the cutting edge even sharper. Naruto easily drove his right fist, his free hand, through the face of a puppet and used its body to block a barrage of kunai spraying from the mouth of another puppet. He swung his sword and cut through two more oncoming puppets, still holding his motionless wooden shield, and grinned widely, getting more interested as more puppets rained down on him.

Sasori watched, mesmerized, as the scientist sliced, hacked and broke his puppets. Each movement wasn't wasted and each thrust welcomed an opportunity for either a punch, a kick or another thrust, moving much to unpredictably for him to keep track of.

Suddenly Naruto's red eyes shone brighter in his hoodie and the boy simply swished his weapon through the air five times, each on circling his body, wildly missing a few puppets, and he flicked a few drops of blood onto the ground, pointing it to the sand and staying in that position.

There was silence, until-

 _Creeeeeaaaak!_

 _Crack!_

 _Pop!_

The puppet master and the mad bomber felt a sharp, quick, change in the air. All the puppets were motionless, the little breeze that blew shifted their robes slightly but not enough to push them. Sasori hesitated to move also, feeling that there was something wrong with how silent it was, before he decided to continue his assault. He forced his will through his blue chakra strings and as they all moved, barely an inch forward, they all broke apart into equal ribbons, clattering and falling onto the ground uselessly.

"How did he…?" Sasori muttered quietly, feeling a small tremor run through his dead wooden body and he hastily suppressed it.

" _Nin-kenjutsu: Snow Leopard midnight echolocation."_ Was the quiet reply that came from the blonde Uzumaki. The attack was an attack he had been working on with Aoki-chan to cast an almost invisible extension of his blade multiple times away from him to neutralize enemies of equal strength. It made use of Naruto's abundance in chakra, his control and his extra senses as part spider, while for Aoki-chan she had to make use of a few souls stored in her blade to cast eerie copies of her Omnyojin away from her body, sort of like clone jutsu but without the clones and only for weapons.

The boy bent down slight and shot forward, stepping on the sand lightly and forcing Sasori to use his Hiruko left arm as a shield as the boy brought down the Kusanagi. He remembered the corrosive poison on the weapon and was able to lean away from it, though Naruto wasn't looking at him again. The boy levelled his senbon launchers on Diedara, who was again sending birds to him in a last ditch chance at surprising the spider summoner, and fired numerous finger length needles, bursting the clay birds messily and having the former Iwa ninja duck away with his hands over his head. Running from the accurate shots coming at him. Naruto saw Sasori quickly bring out a scroll form a storage seal and he kicked his left leg against the hand, breaking it and throwing the scroll away.

Now handless and low on ideas Sasori unhinged his mouth to fire senbon at Naruto. Next thing he knew he was looking straight at the unforgiving sun, spitting only seven needles to the sky, which returned back to him harmlessly. He heard a quick slicing sound and black clouds surrounded his vision, creeping from the edges and taking over his consciousness until Sasori of the Red Sands gave up the ghost.

Naruto pushed the grass cutter deeper into the heart seal and kicked the limp body away from him, allowing the heart seal to remain on his blade but at the base near the hilt. He rolled his neck and snapped his head to the last of the duo, who was shamelessly running away, the desert ground slowing him down but not stopping him from stumbling through, his eyes wide in terror and his breathe coming out as reedy gusts of heat. Deidera gasped and his chest jutted out, ever so slowly a drop of blood crawled out from the corner of his lips and he fell onto his knees weakly. He yelled in pain as the blade was pushed further into his heart, from his back, until the tip shot out from the mouth on his chest, burning the lips pitilessly. The weapon was pushed even more, torturously slowly, until the very tip grazed over the sand. The scientist silently watched on, intrigued, as the mad bombers shoulders quivered uncontrollably for a few short seconds.

"I would have loved to fight for longer but alas, I have a personal deadline I have to reach." The red eyed blonde said smoothly.

"B-b-bastard…Na-Namikaze…" Deidera tried to move his hands but couldn't, no matter how hard he tried. He could feel his own body rebelling against him, his systems failing and alarms blaring in his head. His neck gently slumped forward and his dull eyes stared at the sand, as his heart began melting in his chest, he saw the world light up bright white then it all blinked off, making him fall head first into the cold, unforgiving darkness. His body fell forward onto the sand, off the boys long sword, and he died with an unfinished swear on his lips.

"Too bad." Naruto said with a childish pout. "I was having so much fun." He spun the sword in his palm and smoothly slid it back into his backpack, like he was sheathing it on his back. "Now let's see…" he hummed and looked around; he summoned three snakes to take back Deidera's body back to the white snake sage and pulled out the heart seal for a few tiny spiders to take to Sagi, the spider elder. Maybe they could a use for them; it would be such a waste to just leave them out in the desert.

The scientist screwed his lips to the side and turned around in a full circle.

' _Which direction is Konoha again?'_

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **An hour later**

 **Ten miles west of Konoha**

 **Fire country**

Izumo grunted in pain with each helpless effort he used to drag himself away, clawing at the ground and heaving his limp body forward, away from the man that toyed with his very existence.

The allied forces were now focused in Fire country, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of allied shinobi that were fighting undead in various parts of the country, tirelessly trying to seal them away as best as they could, but the fact remained that these undead shinobi were hard to kill, notwithstanding the fact that they were already dead. They were just too many, and they fought with one mind, though from analysing them a person had to be within a mile at the very centre in order to control all the thousands of undead at the very same time, though they still couldn't find the puppet master.

The fighting hadn't yet reached Konoha, every ninja laid down their lives to keep the attackers away, no matter what it took. They had received news that Naruto's poison was neutralizing every plant clone, so much so that the clones weren't considered problems anymore, more like annoying flies that could be swatted away. The undead still posed the greatest problem, especially when there were big names making their appearance.

There was a sealing unit to seal away the undead they managed to neutralize but it always took a big toll on the allied forces; there were always casualties. One undead would take down dozens before it could be sealed, if that went on for long then the world would end and the undead would rule, with the Kabuto Yukushi the puppet master as king of the new world.

Izumo crawled up to a tree and his muscles tensed agonizingly as he dragged himself to his feet. He faced his undead aggressor, Hanzo of the Salamander, and bared his blood painted teeth in defiance.

"Take your best shot."

The man shook his head sadly and swung his right fist forward to crush the eternal chunins head. Izumo closed his eyes and resigned himself to his fate; Kotetsu was critically injured in the hidden medical bay, Konoha division, and the chances of him living were slim. Might as well join his friend in heaven, kami knows they tried their best. The air shook with electricity and Izumo cracked open his eyes, only to see that the attacking hand of the former Amekage had been sliced off to his elbow. The masked man looked at his chopped off limb, then to his right forearm on the ground, and then finally to the culprit standing to his right. A child shaded by a red hood allowing only a few tufts of blonde hair to spill from the sides and evil vulpine red eyes shining from the darkness of the hood. The ninja was obviously young, the man could feel it despite not being able to clearly see the attackers face and despite also being about the same height as him, and as he wondered how the boy could cut off his arm, so quickly and efficiently might he add, he was answered when the blond flashed a thin, spindly leg that hooked over his left shoulder, deadly sharp at the tip. It lifted back up and sliced off his other arm before he could retaliate.

Naruto swiftly slammed his left fist into the man's gut, making use of a monumental amount of Kyuubi chakra, and the result was his abdomen exploding from behind him in an outstanding display of dust. Another spider leg shot out from behind the blondes back again, hooking over his shoulder like the first one, and two more erupted from his mid-lower back, curving in to join the rest in facing the former Rain leader. The spider legs were about the same length as Sagi's legs, which, quite frankly, was longer than any normal adult was tall, making it very easy for Naruto to firmly hold the masked man down and spin him in a thick, white web that might as well be as strong as titanium. The deceptively strong but thin legs held the man up at Naruto's command and brought him closer to the boy's face, Hanzo could see a devious smirk cross the mysterious boys face.

"I smell snake all over you, Lord Hanzo." Naruto said low enough for the restrained man to hear. The mutated human-spider lifted up his hands, his right pointer finger placed on Hanzo's forehead and the other in a _half ram_ hand seal. "Where are you Kabuto…?" he asked, more to himself than to anybody, and even at the dead Kage's silent struggles the spider legs, sprouted from the boys back and shoulder blades, held on strong as Naruto absorbed only a drop of the residue of Kabuto's chakra. He separated the strain of chakra and 'smelt' the nature chakra from it, tracing it right back to the shocked snake-man. "Found you." Naruto said with a wide grin and another pair of spider legs burst from his lower back, over his pelvis, and these legs aided him in carrying the wrapped up body of the former Rain leader with the two legs from his mid-lower back. Without looking back he shot a single needle to the grievously injured gatekeeper's neck and Izumo immediately slumped bonelessly against the tree. "You'll be fine." And he leaped into the treeline, leaving the unconscious body of the chunin behind but also leaving a hand sized spider to guard his body, just to be on the safe side.

The boy moved with the speed of a shadowy red blur, falling down on unsuspecting undead shinobi, spinning them securely in chakra draining spider webs and leaving before those he had helped could get a firm grasp on his body, but they all knew who he was. You had to be deaf to not hear the haunting cackling that followed the boy like a malevolent ghost. You had to be blind to not see the residue of the webs evaporate into the air from the projectiles he over shot.

You had to have a very bad memory to not recognize his chakra.

One moment Konoha ninjas were squaring off against undead, fighting with their last breathe, and then the next there was a small red blur of speed that descended onto their opponent, wrapped him up in blaringly white webs and flipped off into the treeline, the reincarnated ninja unable to escape from the web. After he had gone, leaving only a thin web string in his wake, there was loud, violent crashing following after him. Trees broke, the ground rumbled, as an entire web ball of writhing undead ninjas rolled after the red spider, carving a path through the ground from its sheer increasing size, with each addition, and with the weight of holding the ninjas in them. The ninjas he had bailed out hastily had to get out of the way or else they would turn into bloody smears from being crushed by the web ball of undead shinobi.

Naruto crash landed on the Hokage's tower and with an almighty yank he pulled the humungous bag of writhing humanity with him. The bag dropped down and he caught it in both of his hands raised overhead and to show the ninjas fighting around, especially those that he had helped, of his presence.

Those looking up at him could only see a humanoid creature with six spider legs sprouting from his back, holding up a massive white web ball that obviously held undead shinobi, with a few of them groaning piteously from the sides and the bag rumbling ever so slightly. They could see a white beam spread over his hidden face and he yelled.

"I need someone to seal these guys!"

That drew them out of their daze. Over six ninjas of the sealing unit sped out from their stations and Naruto threw the web ball, casting it over the walls of the village and crashing into a cluster of trees, though the web ball held on strongly. A final pair of spider legs grew from slightly under his lower back but still a bit over his pelvis and four spider legs, the two found on his lower back, hefted him off his feet effortlessly and he skittered around the roof of the Hokage's tower. The boy clicked around briefly until he found the massive window overlooking the building leading directly to the Hokage's office.

As he got his feet back under him in Tsunade's office he batted aside two white snakes that were thrown at him by the snake summoner, sending over a mental apology to the snakes as they heavily hit the wall and dispersed.

"I really hope that wasn't the best you could do, Kabuto." He said, clicking his extra limbs on the ground as he slowly stalked to the scaly white bespectacled man.

Kabuto gave a feral hiss, revealing his needle sharp canines and spitting out acid at the boy, which Naruto had to roll aside for. The green venom the medic spat out sizzled as it hit the wooden door of the Kage's office. "I've been waiting for this opportunity for so long." He thought out loud and Naruto raised an interested eyebrow.

"Have you now."

"Yes, and I will make my mistress watch as I kill you." His head shot to a corner of the room, behind the Hokage's desk, which he had been sitting on, and the pale snake Sannin rigidly marched forward. Naruto's eyebrows lowered and his lips tightened when the woman looked at him. The boy felt his heart thud loudly, banging against his ribs. It increased tempo steadily until his blood began boiling and a haze covered his eyes; his jaw clenched powerfully, grinding his sharp teeth against each other and his fists closed with enough strength for them to crack.

Orochimara smiled forlornly when she saw her godson go under the small, barely seen change from playful and taunting to Uzumaki battle lust. It wasn't something she could train him to suppress, only he could do that and now, seeing as Kabuto had touched a very delicate nerve the boy didn't bother holding up his pent up battle lust, the one he had suppressed in his battle with Sasori and Deidera, the one he had held in when he had gathered the undead shinobi he had passed on his way to Konoha. Naruto had a firm grasp on his emotions and his self-control was equal to the snake Sannin's but there were few lines people crossed that he didn't bother holding himself back against.

First was stealing from him.

Second was hurting his friends, particularly Aoki-chan.

Third was hurting his family, specifically Orochimara.

Fourth was undermining him.

The last was doing all top four at the very same time.

…And Kabuto had done just that.

Few saw Naruto in this side, just about to go feral. The A rank ronin saw this the most times and she was forced not to interfere or else she would lose her head as a result.

The boy's victims never survived long enough to warn others.

Naruto silently bent down into a new fighting style, a drastically upgraded version of the four legged shadow spider fighting style.

The _twelve legged shadow spider fighting style_

"I am going to enjoy tearing you to pieces, Kabuto." Naruto growled under his breathe and Kabuto in turn got into his own fighting style the _shadow snake fighting style_ , taught to him by the very woman he called mistress. A powerful fighting style in its own right that had been perfected over the years by the very woman that had created it, as well as the first blonde she had ever taught it to, Minato. If used properly it _might_ be able to hold up against the multiple legged fighting style.

That was a big 'if'.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **The forest of death**

 **Konohagakure no Sato**

"I still feel he is holding back." Madara hummed in thought as his eternal Mangekyo sharingan spun lazily in his sockets, observing the stand-off between Naruto and Kabuto through the Sandaime's glass orb.

Obito looked at him in bewilderment. "Still?"

"Yes. I cannot see him using any tailed beast chakra or nature chakra."

"What about those spider legs? Those aren't nature chakra constructs?"

"No, they are part of his body, a result of his mutation I assume. He is now only using his own chakra." Madara said with an excited smirk, briefly looking at the one armed Uchiha beside him then back to the tense stand-off. "He is as good as you said he was."

 **Authors note**

 **Seems Madara's getting turned on.**

 **Question, who wants to see Naruto's fight with Kabuto, or should I just skip him? I really don't mind skipping him.**

 **I actually had this spider version Naruto in my head since chapter two. The limbs can bend in any direction, like double jointed limbs but…more joints, and they're strong.**

 **Kindly drop a review, send me a PM or hit me up on Tumblr** _ **ghost – of – foy**_ **if you want to see a bit into the next chapter. Also, don't forget to vote for the crossover that fancies you the most, and if you don't see the universe/crossover that you want then tell it to me in a review!**

 **I will see you all on the flip side.**

 **Foy.**


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